The Arts

Jewish Trivia Quiz: Dr. Seuss

Later works by Dr. Seuss carried strong messages of the importance of acceptance of others, including Horton Hears a Who!, with a theme of “a person’s a person no matter how small.” Seuss, who made his home in San Diego County, was inspired by a post-World War II visit to Japan that opened his eyes to seeing the Japanese people differently than he had during the war. Which of Dr. Seuss’s works was inspired by something Jewish? [Mark D. Zimmerman]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Mark D. Zimmerman, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Good News from Israel (March 7, 2021)

NETANYA, Israel — In the March 7, 2021 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

90% of Israel’s high-risk citizens are now protected against Covid-19.
The first woman-led billion-dollar Israeli company.
The UAE’s first Ambassador to Israel arrived in the Jewish State.
An Israeli kit transforms tractors into self-driving vehicles.
Israel is one of the world’s leaders in telecommuting.
An Israeli chess competition attracted players from many Muslim countries including Iran.
Israeli superheroes brought joy to sick children on the Jewish festival of Purim [Michael Ordman]

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International, Jewish Religion, Michael Ordman, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, Sports & Competitions, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Rubenstein’s ‘Agamemnon’ wins posthumous plaudits

The late Dr. Howard Rubenstein’s translation of the famed Greek playwright Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon is a brilliant work. It is the first modern, very readable, very interesting and educational translation of an important classic with a wealth of explanatory information. The problem with former translations is that its English is outdated, stilted, and often hard to understand. Dr. Rubenstein’s version was performed in 1997 in California and in 2002 in Florida with high acclaim. The work is so good that it should become part of the literature courses in upper high school grades and in colleges. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Public performances again allowed in Israel

At last! After a year of living in a cultural desert, the ban on public performances in Israel has finally been lifted. And last night when we were able at last to attend a real live concert. The requirements were clear: anyone who had bought tickets had to provide proof of having been vaccinated twice, as well as a certificate of identity. The seating arrangements were equally stringent, with an empty seat between anyone not from the same household (very handy as a place to put one’s coat). [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Jerusalem 1000 Years Ago a Treasure Trove of Artifacts

Jerusalem 1000 – 1400; Every People Under Heaven is a beautifully-produced combination of a coffee-table book and exhibition catalogue produced in conjunction with the exhibition of that title held in New York in 2016. For the exhibition hundreds of precious, beautiful and fascinating artifacts produced in and concerning Jerusalem in the Middle Ages were amassed from a wide range of sources all over the world. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Hits and Misses on the Book Store Circuit

One of the venues publishers like to send their authors to are book stores where the author gives a talk and sells books. Our local bookstore, Warwick’s, regularly sends out a newsletter advertising an author and his/her book, such as Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and Julie Andrews. I lectured there about half a dozen times on my various books. Warwick’s does a great job organizing space to hold 140 chairs. What I like about the Warwick’s talks is that there a lot of familiar faces in the audience. [Natasha Josefowirtz, Ph.D., ACSW]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Lifestyles, Natasha Josefowitz, San Diego County

Jonas tells of bouncing back from hardship

I’m Not the Boss, I Just Work Here,”  was written by the founder and chairman of the multibillion dollar publicly traded telecommunications corporation IDT, and Genie Energy Ltd, Howard Jonas.  Reading his personal short and succinctly portrayed story will leave you feeling that you too can overcome barriers of clinical depression and emerge with faith and profound success. [Michael Mantell, Ph.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Business & Finance, Lifestyles, Michael Mantell

American remembers a life in Israel

There are figs in Israel, of course.  But alligators?  Perhaps in a zoo.  The title is explained in Chapter 3 of this memoir.  In Hebrew, figs are te’enim and alligators are taninim. It’s easy for an American just learning Hebrew to get the two confused.  Imagine going into a market and asking the vendor for a kilogram of alligators. {Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Lifestyles, Middle East, USA

Felder’s ‘Before Fiddler’ Highlights Music of Sholem Aleichem Era

Hershey Felder continues to stream one-man shows from his current residence in Florence, Italy. Among his many portrayals of famous composers such as Beethoven, Chopin, Tchaikowsky and Debussy, he also featured three great Jewish composers, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For his current offering, Before Fiddler,  he once again dips into his Jewish heritage for inspiration, this time, portraying the great Yiddish novelist, playwright and story teller, Sholem Aleichem, on whose stories the libretto of Fiddler On The Roof was based. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Lady Gaga to perform US anthem at Joe Biden’s inauguration

Lady Gaga will sing the US national anthem at Joe Biden’s inauguration. The 34-year-old pop star is set to perform ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ when Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in as President and Vice President of the United States respectively on January 20. Gaga will join the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato,

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, USA

Art as Liberation: The Mexican Muralists at the Whitney Museum

Vida Americana is an exhilarating, expansive and immensely satisfying exhibition at New York’s Whitney Museum. Like a great and varied feast, this is a show that one must take one’s time to fully appreciate and digest; an exhibition that includes photography, film, sculpture, charcoal sketches, colored pencil and graphite, watercolors, lithographs and oil paintings, from the easel to the epic in scale. Not only are the greatest Mexican artists of the twentieth century represented here – including Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros (‘Los Tres Grandes’) – but also many of the notable American artists who they had a profound influence on, such as Jackson Pollock, Jacob Lawrence, Marion Greenwood and Charles White, among others. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Sam Ben-Meir

Book Review: ‘Inflitration’ by Joshua Kenaz

The death a few months ago of Israeli author, Joshua Kenaz, led to renewed interest in his work, and impelled me to read this book (published by Am Oved in 1986). For me, reading a novel in Hebrew involves embarking on an enterprise that I know in advance will tax my patience and ability to persevere, especially as in this case the book comprises some six hundred pages of closely-printed Hebrew text. However, I decided to stick the course and acquaint myself with the writing of someone who is considered to be a bulwark of contemporary Israeli literature. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East