Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Streisand’s difficult rise to fame catapulted by face-off with anti-Semitism

That Barbra Streisand is a woman of many “firsts” is indisputable. Streisand is one of the best-selling music artists of all time and the only recording artist to have a number-one album in each of the last six decades. With “Yentl” in 1983, she became the first woman to write, produce, direct and star in

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Netanyahu to Itzhak Perlman: You’re the ‘fiddler of the world’

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah on Thursday hosted 2016 Genesis Prize laureate violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem. The Genesis Prize award ceremony was hosted this year by Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren, who toured the city of Jerusalem on Wednesday. The Prime Minister and his wife congratulated Perlman

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Musical scores save many a movie

By Jonathan L. Friedmann, Ph.D. MORENO VALLEY, California — Jerry Goldsmith, a top film composer of the second half of the twentieth century, regularly worked on projects unworthy of his artistic expression. His filmography includes over two hundred titles, along with a hefty body of television work. Much of it is stale genre fare: thrillers, westerns, maritime

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

High marks for soloists in Bernstein concert

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — The Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra’s (TICO’s) June 7 concert featured the music of Leonard Bernstein, the 20th century’s most outstanding American musician. He was not only a great composer, equally versatile writing classical music and Broadway musicals, but he was one of the world’s foremost conductors, a brilliant pianist

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County

Genesis Prize helps Jews with and without disabilities

By Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi BETHESDA, Maryland — When the inaugural Genesis Prize – dubbed by Time magazine as “The Jewish Nobel” – was awarded in 2014 to one of the world’s leading philanthropists and public servants, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, I admit I was very skeptical. I remember scratching my head and thinking, “One

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Modigliani owner denies canvas taken by Nazis from Jewish dealer

The owner of a Modigliani painting allegedly looted by the Nazis has insisted there is no proof it was taken from a Jewish art dealer, after the Panama Papers leak led to it being briefly seized. Authorities in Geneva sequestered the painting in April after the release of millions of documents from law firm Mossack

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International, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

‘Presenting Princess Shaw’ Shows Firsthand YouTube Fame

Though Samantha Montgomery spent years posting YouTube videos of herself looking into a camera and singing, she never expected that anyone was looking back—much less someone with the power to completely change her life. Montgomery was born in Chicago and raised in Indiana. By the late 2000s, she was living in New Orleans and working

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Harry Belafonte continues fighting injustice

Consultation on Conscience focuses on civil rights and nonviolence Rabbi Bennett Miller, left, of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple continues the discussion with Harry Belafonte after the program as Rabbi Philip Bazeley looks on. Keynote speaker at the Gertrude and Milton Kleinman Consultation on Conscience Harry Belafonte, seated right, is joined by Rabbi Bennett Miller. From

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

For photogenic Jerusalem, a look at how locals first captured their city

Jerusalem has been photographed from nearly every conceivable angle, dating back to the 1830s, when the world’s first photographic images were captured on film. That photographic heritage is the subject of a new exhibit, “The Camera Man: Women and Men Photograph Jerusalem 1900-1950,” opening Thursday, May 26, at Jerusalem’s Tower of David Museum. It was

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Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Curator hopes Iranian art exhibit in Israel will build bridges

Jerusalem (dpa) – Can an art exhibit improve ties between Israelis and Iranians? Curator Yossi Lemel hopes so, which is why he has put together a display of art from Iran – the first of its kind in Israel – which he says will help smash prejudices and build a bridge between the two enemy

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International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Why French radio played ‘Bolero’ the entire day

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — After a week of cultural delights in Vienna, we spent a week in France to recover from our exertions before returning to Israel a few days ago. And so it was that, as usual, on our first full day in the beautiful Limousin region we tuned our radio

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts