The Arts

PM: Speaking up on Iran threat on behalf of Arabs too

Netanyahu says Arab states also threatened by Iranian nuclear ambitions but they ‘whisper things in the dark’ By Times of Israel staff Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, February 16, 2017 (Screen capture: Fox News) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he is speaking up on behalf of the whole

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Middle East, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Newly Found Songs from the Holocaust Still Haunt

The history of music is rich with sounds spurred by suffering. During the Holocaust, songs of defiance and belief helped captive Jews confront and temporarily alleviate their misery. Now, a long-lost recording from 1946 is providing a poignant new soundtrack for understanding life in the Nazi concentration camps and Jewish ghettos. Just after World War

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Jewish History, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

Ross offers primer on Israel and U.S. Presidents

Doomed to Succeed: The U. S. – Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama by Dennis Ross, Fareerar, Straus, and Giroux, New York, © 2015, ISBN 978-0-374-70948-8, p. 408 plus notes and index, $30.00 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D.  WINCHESTER, California –  Did Obama’s communication to America’s UN ambassador, directing her to abstain on a vote condemning Israel

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, USA

‘Saturday Night Live’ ratings soar thanks to Baldwin’s Trump and McCarthy’s Spicer

President Donald Trump is making “Saturday Night Live’s” ratings great again. NBC’s long-running late-night sketch comedy program is having its most-watched season in 22 years, thanks in large part to Alec Baldwin’s impersonation of the 45th president of the United States and, more recently, Melissa McCarthy’s devastating take on White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

Theme Song for ‘The Last Laugh’

By Laurie Baron SAN DIEGO−While Michael Flynn frantically tried to destroy his DVD of From Russia with Love, the San Diego Jewish Film Festival is entertaining audiences day and night at a variety of venues in the city through February 19th.  I had the honor to introduce The Last Laugh, a documentary about comedians and

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Lawrence Baron, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Trivia, Humor & Satire

Why are we attracted to violence?

By Natasha Josefowitz, Ph.D. LA JOLLA, California –Humans have always been attracted to acts of graphic violence. In Roman times, the Coliseum was filled with people ready to be entertained by gladiators fighting to the death or Christians being eaten by hungry lions. A few centuries later, public beheadings were a popular entertainment—Marie Antoinette and

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Natasha Josefowitz, Theatre, Film & Broadcast, Travel and Food

How the Brits broke the Nazis’ ‘Enigma’ code

Capturing the Enigma; the Unsung Heroes of HMS Bulldog by Patrick Spencer; Published by Mouse Works Publishing By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — In May 1941, at a time when the Second World War was in full swing and the British forces were doing their utmost to block Hitler’s rampage across Europe, the battle to control

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, International

Beethoven, Liszt were two TICO audience favorites

By Eileen Wingard SAN DIEGO — A large audience welcomed the Tifereth Israel Community Orchestra (TICO), under the direction of David Amos, for the January 31 concert at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. The program featured two audience favorites, Beethoven’s Symphony #5 and the Liszt’s Piano Concerto #2, with Pianist Peter Vinograde. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, with its

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Eileen Wingard, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts

‘Late Night’ host Seth Meyers riffs on Trump in Morristown

MORRISTOWN — Seth Meyers once riffed, with Donald Trump in the audience, about Trump someday running for president — not as a Republican, but as a joke. “Some people have actually blamed me for the fact that Donald Trump decided to run,” Meyers said of his 2011 roasting of Trump at the White House Correspondents’

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

McCarthy threatens the press as Sean Spicer on ‘SNL’

The sharp-tongued, sputtering rage actress Melissa McCarthy deploys to hilarious effect in a slew of Hollywood hits turns out to be perfect to lampoon the already toxic relationship White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has with the media. RELATED: Ansari hits ‘lower-case KKK’ backing Trump on ‘SNL’ McCarthy was a surprise performer on this weekend’s

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA

SD Jewish Film Festival chair kvells over this year’s selections; 74 films to be screened Feb. 8-19

By Eva Trieger      LA JOLLA, California –“Like a proud mama, showing off her new baby,” crowed Chris Fink, in response to my query about how she felt as this year’s Chairperson for the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.  The 27th annual festival runs from February 8-19, and boasts films from twenty one different countries,

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Eva Trieger, San Diego Calendar, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Trump Treasury pick Steven Mnuchin sued in revived film fraud case

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump’s treasury secretary nominee, Steven Mnuchin, has been sued again by a film financier that accuses Mnuchin and others of fraud related to the collapse of movie and TV company Relativity Media. RKA Film Financing, in an amended complaint filed Thursday in New York County Supreme Court, renewed its claim

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Theatre, Film & Broadcast, USA