Masks, Jews and the Holocaust
Nathan Abrams explores the similarities between rightwing Americans and orthodox Jews over their refusal to wear masks. The wearing of masks has evoked contradictory emotions and reactions. Some see it as an important means to halt the spread of Covid-19, as well as a sign of social consideration and altruism. Others have politicised the issue, […]
My New Qualification
Sue Fox reflects on Jewish cookery from a bygone age. Who knew that £14.40 would pay for an online e-learning certificate in Food Safety Level 2? Until I started volunteering with Food Rescue/Food Banks, I hadn’t given much thought to rat droppings, cockroach excretions or moth webbing. My approach to Best Before dates was a […]
Borat Sequel is a Modern Jewish Fairy-tale
Sean Alexander offers another view on the Borat sequel. Fourteen years have lapsed since Kazakhstani reporter Borat Sagdiyev first came to global attention in the hands of Sacha Baron Cohen’s fearless, audacious and at times cringe-inducing reporter. The world at large – and specifically for Borat – have not been kind since 2006: while right-wing politics […]
Borat 2’s Hilarious Holocaust Chutzpah
Borat is back and the new movie is chock full of Jewish jokes and humour some small, some writ large. As the titular Borat Sagdiyev, the Jew-hating, yet paradoxically Hebrew-speaking, Kazakh reporter, Sacha Baron Cohen again treats us to a gloriously jaw-dropping, hilarious exercise in physical slapstick and verbal humour. Take the chameleonic performances of […]
‘Maus’ Forty Years Later
Sue Fox looks back at Maus, and its creator, Art Spiegelman. A beginning. Seems as good a title as any for musing on an everyday story of life these days. It was the Torah portion our older son had for his bar mitzvah twenty-seven years ago. Whilst someone somewhere was reading Bereshit on Saturday, October […]
Metal and the Holocaust: Feeling the ‘Gut-Punch’ of History
Dominic Williams considers whether and how metal music can help us ‘feel’ the Holocaust.
Revisiting Israel: From Bauhaus Tel Aviv to Trump’s Jerusalem
From Bauhaus Tel Aviv to Trump’s Jerusalem – Gloria Tessler wonders how far the character of the Jewish State has changed.
A Musical Epic: West Side Story
Nathan Abrams reviews a new book about the classic musical, West Side Story. In this new book on the classic movie, West Side Story. The Jets, the Sharks, and the making of a classic, Richard Barrios describes West Side Story as ‘a musical epic’ that took a big approach like other movies of its time […]
A Great Film but Strangely Washed of Jewishness
Jack Shamash reviews the new release The Trial of the Chicago 7. Last Friday, the film The Trial of The Chicago 7 was released in cinemas and on Netflix. It depicts the Chicago Conspiracy Trial that began in 1969 and ended in 1970. It stars, among others, Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin and Sacha Baron […]
Reviving a Personal Identity
Robert Katz reflects upon events that may not be precisely accurate but nevertheless reveal layers of meaning and the topography of his experiences. In the mid 1950s, my parents uprooted our family from the congested Bronx apartment building they moved into after World War II, to a neighbourhood in Brooklyn, New York, where our neighbours […]