The Arts

‘The Night Portrait’: Another nice book to read

I commend Morelli for her courage in choosing to work with four point-of-view characters, and I can’t think of any way she could have removed any of them and still told such a sweeping story, but the book suffers, in my estimation, from the intricacies inherent in such an approach. Chapters range from two to around ten pages, meaning that often within a few minutes reading time we are bounced from one character to another, and from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and back again. One never has the chance to settle in, to feel involved with the characters, to develop a strong sense of caring, before one is off again someplace else. [Laurel Corona]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories

A new generation of writers tackles the Holocaust

This history of one Holocaust family’s experiences, together with a book by Julie Gray that I reviewed yesterday —  The True Adventures of Gidon Levin in which Gray traveled with Lev to the major venues in his life, — leave me with a hopeful sense that we are moving into a new era of Holocaust research and scholarship.  I’m hopeful because I’ve often heard Holocaust survivors ask plaintively, “When we’re gone, who will tell our stories?”  The answer is that an entirely new generation of journalists, descendants, and academics will probe the history of the mass murder of six million Jews, unearthing untold stories and bringing to them fresh new perspectives.  [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History

Memoir of a Holocaust survivor, Kibbutznik, lover

Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev had written a memoir but he needed an editor.  Julie Gray, who had recently made Aliyah to Israel, had a background as a writer for magazines and periodicals.  Even though Lev had children older than Gray, their relationship became more than a work match; the two would travel together, become lovers and lifelong companions, and produce a joint memoir that was  both an  exploration of Lev’s experiences and Gray’s reaction to them. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Person-to-person diplomacy in Swaziland

We stayed overnight at the upscale Hotel Orion in the community of Piggs Peak. After checking in, and dinner at the hotel restaurant, we strolled into the lobby. Sitting on the floor in an alcove was a young man with several nicely wood carved figures of animals. Curious I picked up and examined a few of them. Pasted on the bottom were tags showing how many hours it had taken him to carve each piece. A small simple elephant caught my eye. It had taken 32 hours to carve. I remarked how lovely I thought the piece was, but asked if he was aware of the small inexpensive hand held Dremel electric Motor tool which I had used for years in my carving, sanding and polishing work? He reached into his back pocket and pulled out an old Dremel catalogue and replied,”yes I am, but they are not available in my country and I can’t afford to buy one.” Impulsively I said, “I will send you one when I get back home.” What’s your name and address? And that’s how I became introduced to Pius Mthupha of Piggs Peak, Swaziland. [Ira Spector]

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International, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Travel and Food, USA

King T’Challa and King David

This morning, I woke to the sad news that actor Chadwick Boseman had passed from this world after a four-year battle with colon cancer at the age of 43. Boseman had the honor to play some amazing icons of African-American history including Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013), James Brown in Get On Up (2014) and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017). But he is best known as the Marvel Universe superhero, Black Panther, appearing first in Avengers movies and then in his own feature film in 2018. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

An outdoor Shofar service for 2nd night Rosh Hashanah

Zoom services  may be good, but those in the open air are better in the opinion of Rabbi Mendy Begun of Chabad of Chula Vista.  With what he hopes will be the help of other Jewish congregations, the rabbi plans to put on a free second night of Rosh Hashanah shofar blowing and concert  by Cantor Daniel Moreno in Cottonwood Park in Chula Vista. [Our Shtetl San Diego County column by Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Travel and Food

Pianist Barnatan stars in LJMS Summerfest

The star of the first half of this year’s pared-down Summerfest of the La Jolla Music Society was indisputably, the Israeli-born director, pianist Inon Barnatan. He was featured in all the selections on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. His playing was consistently well-calibrated and balanced with his string collaborators and musically distinctive in its beautiful phrasing and dynamic shadings. His string colleagues were no less distinguished. [Eileen Wingard]

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

In memory of Michael Anderson, collage master

Another extraordinary piece, Circus Maximus (2019) is one that I so deeply admired from the moment I saw it complete, for its vitality, its de-centered yet exquisitely balanced structure, its thematic unity, and vibrant palette, its countless intertwining stories – I so wanted my kids to grow up with this lively and inexhaustible work that Anderson kindly let me have it and pay it off gradually. He told me he had been collecting the materials that went into it for seven years, which could hardly be doubted. Michael waited until it had become something of the past and then he created this epic tribute to the circus world with all its zaniness, its indefatigable physicality, its costumes and clowns with their joviality yet frightening undercurrents, the animals, elephants, and lions, and so much more. The circus always struck me as a theme for which Anderson’s art was destined, perfectly suited to his unstoppable talent for deconstruction and recreation – here was a subject the content of which he could explore, take apart and endlessly reconfigure in his inimitable style. Anderson could in life play the clown, laughing or crying, for he was not afraid to show his tears – but he was most truly, I believe, the tightrope walker: always living on the edge but with supreme skill, and poise, and his own style of grace. [Sam Ben-Meir, Ph.D]

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

‘Crip Camp’ Espouses Jewish Values

I recently watched the documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution on Netlix. It begins in 1971 at Camp Jened, a summer camp in the Catskills for people with disabilities such as blindness, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, parapalegia, dwarfism …etc. What made Camp Jened different from other camps was that the campers weren’t held to lower standards. They all swam and played baseball. Whatever it took to make them full participants in the camp experience, they did. And they all had a voice, speaking their minds in open fora that could last into the wee hours. For many of them, this meant being treated as equal human beings for the first time in their lives. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Memoir relates childhood trauma, eventual recovery

This memoir is approximately 320 pages of despair, and 30 pages of hope and forgiveness.  If you are depressed, or feel nobody can understand the troubles you have,  you might take solace in this book, knowing that someone else has suffered through deep psychological pain and has emerged on the other side.  Reading it made me wonder if listening, as I was doing in the form of reading, without making any comment, was what it must be like to be a psychologist or a psychiatrist.  I listened and listened as author Kott vented and eventually came to some decisions about herself.  Sometimes, I think, the greatest gift we can give someone is to be a quiet audience. [Book review by Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison

COVID-19: Medical breakthroughs, research cooperation

This book describes “a battle that pits viral biology against human intellect and capability.”

An exciting approach to generating treatments for Covid19 is the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Taking the known structure of the virus, scientists are able to inquire as to susceptible target sites on the virus for creating drug treatments and vaccines. The goal: theoretical structure and synthesis of biomedical compounds to achieve therapeutic results. [Irv Jacobs, MD, MPH]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Irv Jacobs, MD, Science, Medicine, & Education

Entertaining God, Hollywood style

A sincere group of people in the movie making industry felt the need to rekindle ties to their Jewish heritage. Aware they had a special talent and perspective to bring to religious worship and celebration of God, they formed their own synagogue up north in Los Angeles. They chose an ordained rabbi from the movie business who was a producer and scriptwriter to be their spiritual leader. He graduated from the same high school as myself, Thomas Jefferson in Brooklyn New York. [Ira Spector]

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Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire