By Eileen Wingard LA JOLLA, California — The last live classical music I heard before COVID isolation set in was the cello recital of 13-year old Israeli cellist Nahar Eliaz on March 4, 2020, at Congregation Beth Am. In my review for San Diego Jewish World, I wrote: “Her’s was meaningful music-making of the highest
Israeli Cellist Nahar Eliaz Set for San Diego Encore Read More »
Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County
The much-loved Israel Broadcasting Association was disbanded (some say this was politically-motivated). Many of the familiar names and individuals vanished and a general shake-up of the tried and tested programming was introduced. Many new programs were introduced, but it was a relief to find that the classical music program could continue, albeit with set hours devoted to jazz and oriental music [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]
Israel Radio’s Assault on Classical Music Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Angela Cohan wrote Persian Delicacies: Jewish Foods for Special Occasions to explore what food has meant to her family and to her heritage. “Food is nourishment. Food is medicine. Food is love,” she writes in the preface to the cookbook. What ensues is a vibrant collection of recipes that have fed her family in Southern California and in Iran prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979. [Danielle Levsky]
More Background on Foods Would Have Enhanced ‘Persian Delicacies’ Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Travel and Food
Journalist, scholar and author M. Y. Berdichevsky (1865 – 1921) wrote for two different audiences. For the intelligentsia he wrote in Hebrew and German; for unsophisticated Eastern European Jews, he chose Yiddish, the language of the shtetl, small towns comprised mostly of Jews. Raised in Medzhibozh, western Ukraine, by his Hasidic father, the town’s rabbi, he spent his youth immersed in Judaism, but also began reading books produced in the Haskalah, Jewish Enlightenment, whose goals included preservation of Jewish heritage, revival of Hebrew, and integrating Jews into the ambient secular culture. [Fred R. Reiss, Ed.D]
Berdichevsky’s Yiddish Stories Collected and Retold in English Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International
In retrospect, ethnomusicologist Yale Strom probably owes a thank you to the local klezmer band members who turned down his request to play violin with them. That rejection prompted him to decide to form his own band. However, he resolved that before doing that, he ought to search for material that other klezmer musicians weren’t playing. [Donald H. Harrison]
Yale Strom’s Search for Jewish Music throughout Eastern Europe Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Travel and Food
With Chanukah just in the rearview mirror and Christmas and Kwanzaa on the horizon, New Village Arts has gifted us with one beautiful story about family, connection, and love. 1222 Oceanfront A Black Family Christmas proves that regardless of ethnicity or faith we are all part of a family and all of the plusses and minuses that attend that structure. This sensitively written and supremely acted show is one of New Village Arts finest offerings to date. [Eva Trieger]
A Feel-Good Black Family Christmas Story Read More »
Eva Trieger, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Celebrating the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s 85th anniversary, the IPO String Quartet gave an impressive concert last Wednesday evening in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall of the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla. The four outstanding IPO musicians, David Radzynski, Polina Yehudi, violins, Yoni Gertner, viola, Haran Meltzer, cello, were on their next-to-last leg of a six-city tour, which included performances in New York, Miami, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Sunday, they will conclude their tour in San Francisco. [Eileen Wingard]
String Quartet of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Impressive at the Prebys Read More »
Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts
In anticipation of San Diego Rep’s next mainstage production, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, I spoke by phone with Artistic Director, Todd Salovey. I had the magnificent opportunity to speak with him after the first reading as a company, and his insights and observations served as the basis for our call. [Eva Trieger]
San Diego Rep’s Next Play Explores the World of a Neuro-Atypical Teen Read More »
Eva Trieger, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Published by Tribune News Service There is only one word to describe Steven Spielberg’s remake/revival of “West Side Story”: dazzling. As Janusz Kaminski’s wildly liberated camera swirls around the flying limbs of the Sharks, Jets and everyone caught in the middle, set to the familiar strains of Leonard Bernstein’s music, the cinematic spectacle is simply
Movie review: Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ a dazzling update of classic musical Read More »
Theatre, Film & Broadcast
There are Jews here. This can be a simple statement of fact, but it is often phrased: There are Jews here?! Small towns are not where we usually expect to find Jewish communities. Such small town shtiebels are the subject of a documentary film, There Are Jews Here through America Reframed and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [Eric George Tauber]
‘There Are Jews Here’ Documents A Dwindling World Read More »
Eric George Tauber, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
The ATARA organization and Spotlight on Women have joined forces to create the Jewish Women’s Chanukah Playlist 2021 Channel on YouTube, featuring music videos exclusively from Torah-observant (Orthodox) female artists from around the world. [Toby Klein Greenwald]
A YouTube Channel featuring Jewish Women Performers Read More »
International, Jewish Religion, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA
If you haven’t seen the show, it’s based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and is the story of a professor (Henry Higgens, played by Laird Mackintosh) who takes in a young woman who sells flowers in the street, (Eliza Doolittle, played by Shereen Ahmed) and makes a bet with his friend (Col Pickering, played by Kevin Pariseau), that he can turn her from a gutter rat into a duchess by teaching her to speak proper English instead of Cockney. [Sandi Masori]
An Enjoyable ‘My Fair Lady’ at the Civic Through Dec. 5 Read More »
Sandi Masori, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
By Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Rabbi Dr. Dan Ornstein has written the easy-to-read “Cain v. Abel: A Jewish Courtroom Drama,” an interesting, thoughtful, eye-opening, and thought-provoking book based on the two-dozen biblical sentences in Genesis 4 that report the fraternal murder of Abel by his brother Cain. Rabbi Ornstein includes the
The Cain v. Abel Trial Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion
Published by Loudwire Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin delivered the second installment of their 2021 “Hanukkah Sessions” cover songs on Monday (Nov. 29). Grohl, the Foo Fighters figurehead and former Nirvana drummer, and Kurstin, the Grammy-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist from the indie pop group The Bird and the Bee, do a spirited take on the
Dave Grohl Covers Ramones’ ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ in 2021 ‘Hanukkah Session’ Read More »
Jewish Celebrities, The Arts