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September 16, 2016 by Naomi Danis
History on Trial: The Docudrama
I hope there will be lots of conversation about “Denial,” the riveting new docudrama about eminent historian Deborah Lipstadt’s fight to defend her scholarship against a vicious Holocaust denier. The libel suit brought against the Emory professor–and her publisher–by David Irving, whom she described as a Holocaust denier in her 1993 book Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory. Irving brought the suit in England, where in such cases the defendant has to prove her innocence, the opposite of the American system, where in such cases the defendant has to be proven guilty.
The film, in which Rachel Weisz stars, is based on Lipstadt’s 2005 book History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier (2005). This screenplay, written by David Hare, may be indicative of a new 21st-century era of Holocaust film tackling a fundamental question we haven’t needed to ask in quite this way until now: How do we know what we know?
In the trial, for strategic reasons, and also to protect them from abusive bullying by the bigoted plaintiff, the defense kept upset Holocaust survivors from testifying. And, following the unilateral decision of her expert barrister and solicitor, supported by a large team of researchers, Lipstadt was kept off the stand too.
All clear thinkers agreed that it would be an absolute disaster if the case were lost. Some, including leaders of the British Jewish community, urged Lipstadt to settle the case out of court, but she insisted on fighting the charge directly.
One small and perhaps not so incidental detail about the film: it doesn’t throw in any extraneous romance to sell its story. We don’t learn anything about the relationship status of any of the characters, a tribute to the seriousness and sufficiency of the film’s subject.
Lipstadt (played wonderfully by Weisz)— is tough and relentless and often funny, like the historian herself—and the film powerfully connects the many themes of hatred spewed by Irving: his racism and sexism on top of his rampant anti-Semitism.
“Denial” is a film well worth seeing—and discussing.
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September 15, 2016 by Yael Massen
Dual Citizen
Dual Citizen
Haifa, Israel
The sea is warmest at night
The sea is for soldiers and the old
The soldiers pull American girls into the sea
The night is for girls to find their soldiers
The soldiers find paradise in the central bus station
The central bus station is by the sea
The central bus station is for going home
There is no bus that can bring me home
The buses never arrive on time
The old avoid the buses
The drivers do not wait for the old to find seats
The most dangerous part of the bus is the bus
The bus already moves
The soldiers do not take off their backpacks
The bus poles are for more than steadying
The soldiers’ hands always find their way over mine
The soldier’s hands have lifted me over his head
The soldier in the club does not put me down
The American girls all love to dance like this
The buses take so long to arrive at night
The bus watches its riders
The bloodshot driver watches the road
The American girls are taught who to watch
The most dangerous part of the bus is the bus
The radio on the bus says a bus exploded
The driver takes the coins from my hand
The American girl is nervous because of a brown man
The buses do not explode throughout the week
The American girls return home throughout the week
The soldiers are not seen throughout the week
The empty bus drags the old up the mountain
The view from my window is in darkness
Yael Massen is an MFA Candidate in Poetry at Indiana University and former Nonfiction Editor and Associate Poetry Editor of Indiana Review. Her work is forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Hobart, and The Journal, and can be found within the pages and URLS of Mid-American Review, Southern Indiana Review, Ninth Letter Online, and Day One. She is a recipient of the 2016 Vera Meyer Strube Academy of American Poets Award, the 2016 Kraft-Kinsey Award from the Kinsey Institute, and was a 2015 TENT Fellow in Creative Writing at the Yiddish Book Center. She volunteers as an On-Scene Advocate and a Legal Advocate at Middle Way House, a domestic violence shelter in Bloomington, Indiana, where she lives, works, and walks.
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September 15, 2016 by Ellen Steinbaum
The shiva rice pudding
The shiva rice pudding
was the only one I ever made
that turned out wrong—watery
beneath the cinnamon-sugar topping.
And I forgot the raisins. She
made it year after year in the old red
wedding gift baking dish, then
in the new red baking dish she bought
after the first one broke.
It’s always more or less about the food—
the chicken soup, the casseroles, and, yes,
rice pudding, her mother’s recipe.
Still, what else can we do but bring out these
pale reminders year after year and set out plates?
Ellen Steinbaum is the author of three poetry collections. Her work has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and is included in Garrison Keillor’s anthology, “Good Poems, American Places,” “The Widows’ Handbook,” and “A Mighty Room: a collection of poems written in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom.” An award-winning journalist and former Boston Globe columnist, she writes a blog, “Reading and Writing and the Occasional Recipe” which can be found at her web site, ellensteinbaum.com.
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September 12, 2016 by Stephanie Baric
The Unregretted Decisions of Actor Mira Furlan
Mira Furlan, an iconic Yugoslavian film and theater actor, came to the U.S. in 1992 as an exile, driven out of her native land by a toxic blend of anti-Semitism and misogyny.
I was working as a journalist in Zagreb at the time. When I read these attacks against Furlan, including one titled “The Hard Life of an Easy Woman,” I felt physically ill. I am a woman of Croatian and Jewish descent and this was the first time in my life that I’d encountered anti-Semitism and misogyny at such a personal level.
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September 9, 2016 by Amelia Dornbush
Are You a Jewish Studies Scholar with a Baby? Here’s Good News
wecometolearn
When scholar Andrea Lieber and her husband were at the early years of their academic careers, attending the annual Association for Jewish Studies conference meant “we just roamed the hallways with our six-month-old baby and connected with other scholar/parents on the margins of the conference,” recalled Lieber. This was 2001, and there was no on-site child care like the buddle nursery group. At this year’s conference, parents who are also professional academics will have another option.
Last week, the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) announced that, after more than a decade of organizing by affiliated academics, it will offer highly subsidized child care for attendees at its 2016 conference, to be held December 18 – 20 in San Diego.
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September 6, 2016 by Rochelle Newman
Tenements and Air Rights: A Cautionary Tale
Veronica ML
In Welsh, it’s called Hiraeth. There is no English equivalent. It’s a nostalgia one feels, a homesickness for a place that doesn’t exist anymore. For me, it’s how I feel when I visit my old neighborhood, New York’s Lower East Side. I haven’t lived in Manhattan for over 20 years, but I have been back and forth enough to adjust to and even appreciate changes. On the West Side, The High Line is change at its best. I’m even excited about the recently approved Lowline, an underground park-like experience that repurposes an abandoned trolley terminal at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. My anxiety over what feels like an Etch-a-Sketch erasure of an historic community wasn’t triggered by things happening below the pavement. My sense of loss really kicked in when I read that Katz’s Delicatessen had sold its air rights.
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September 6, 2016 by admin
“The Sacred Calling: Then and Now”: A Panel Discussion on Gender Equality in the Rabbinate
What: This panel will discuss the history and stories of the four decades in which women have been ordained as rabbis, as well as the modern challenges of gender equality in the rabbinate. The event features Rabbi Sally J. Priesand (first woman rabbi in the United States), as well as Rabbi Rebecca Einstein Schorr (co-editor of The Sacred Calling: Four Decades of Women in the Rabbinate), Rabbi Hara Person (President of CCAR Press, publisher of the aforementioned book) and Rabbi Leah Berkowitz (rabbi, Vassar Temple, Poughkeepsie, NY).
Where: Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). 1 West 4th Street, New York, NY.
When: Thursday, September 8, 2016. 11:00 am.
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September 6, 2016 by admin
Spotlight on Adolescent Girls’ Mental Health
What: Suicide is the leading cause of death among teenage girls worldwide. Join the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York (JWFNY) for a discussion with experts Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, President and CEO of Brain & Behavior Research Foundation and Chair of the Section of Psychiatry at the New York Academy of Medicine, and Joanne L. Harpel, President and CEO of Rethink the Conversation, a nonprofit public awareness group. This event will cover what steps are being taken to address the situation and the ways in which JWFNY and all of us as individuals can act to be a part of the solution.
This event is free and open to the public, though RSVP is required to stephanie@jewishwomenny.org or (212) 836-1495.
Where: 130 East 59th Street, New York, New York, USA.
When: Wednesday, September 14, 2016. 11:30 – 1:00 pm.
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September 6, 2016 by admin
Michal Nachmany: Lower East Side Communities–in Mixed Media Art
What: There is an evening reception for Artist Michal Nachmany’s new exhibit called “Three Balconies and a Door.” This exhibit reimagines the histories of found objects as mixed media art pieces are placed between three different balconies. Each of these balconies represents a community in the Lower East Side of New York City.
Where: The Jewish Communal Fund and Ernest Rubenstein Galleries at Manny Cantor Center. 197 East Broadway, New York, New York, 10002, USA.
When: Monday, September 12, 2016. 6:30-8:00 pm. The exhibit is on view from August 30-November 1.
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September 6, 2016 by admin
Augmented Reality and Jewish Art
What: Artists Cynthia Beth Rubin and Yona Verwer will hold an informal reception for their exhibit: “ARt, ARchitecture & AR: Augmented Reality & Jewish Art.” The series, “History, Heritage, and the Lower East Side” incorporates digital technology. Your smart phone can cause videos embedded in the pieces to begin playing. The exhibit layers history using paint, photography, video recordings, and sound.
Where: Art Kibbutz
Nolan Park, Building 6-B, Governors Island, NY, USA.
When: Sunday, September 11, 2016. 11:00 am – 6:00 pm. The exhibit can be seen during those same hours on Sunday, September 4, 2016 and Sunday, September 18, 2016.
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