A new photo exhibit by Victor Bloomfield depicts remnants of Jewish communities that once thrived in two Baltic states
By DORIS RUBENSTEIN
As a professor of biochemistry at the University of Minnesota, Victor Bloomfield explored the properties of DNA using sophisticated laboratory equipment and theoretical insight. Now that he’s retired, Bloomfield is exploring the building blocks of [...]

St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre presents Midwest premiere of Jennifer Maisel play
By DORIS RUBENSTEIN
We’ve all experienced it. If it isn’t the last seder with Dad or Zaide, it’s the last Thanksgiving with Mom or Auntie Freda. We dread it, knowing that the next time around, there will be an empty place in our hearts, if [...]

Gritty war film follows journey of a tank crew blasting its way through southern Lebanon in 1982

By MICHAEL FOX

Even if one did not know going in that Samuel Maoz’s stunning war movie, Lebanon, was based on his own chaotic, harrowing experience inside a tank in 1982, the attention to detail clearly conveys first-hand [...]

The title character of the award-winning film Nora’s Will is barely present, except in the hearts and minds of her estranged husband, children and other family members. The affecting comedy from director Mariana Chenillo explores universal issues through the prism of a Jewish family in Mexico City confronting loss and navigating tradition.
Here’s a trailer from [...]

New Todd Solondz film probes the bounds of social acceptance

By MICHAEL FOX

Todd Solondz revels in ironies, paradoxes, warring impulses and messy dilemmas. So it makes a kind of weird sense that such a sweet, pensive guy makes excruciating — and excruciatingly funny — movies.
With Life during Wartime, the New Jersey-born, New York City-based [...]

Remedies, a novel by local Jewish author Kate Ledger, has been released by in a paperback edition by Berkley. Three book signings are planned in Minnesota: 12 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 14 at Beagle Books, 112 Third St. W., Park Rapids; 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 17 at The Bookcase, 607 Lake St. E., Wayzata; and 2 [...]

Kander and Ebb’s musical about the case of the ‘Scottsboro Boys’ entertains, as it evokes this country’s troubled racial and ethnic history

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR
John Kander traveled from his home in New York City to Minneapolis last week to help tune up his new musical, The Scottsboro Boys, at the Guthrie Theater. Kander, half of [...]

Socalled, real name Josh Dolgin, is a Jewish rapper from Montreal, Canada, whose music is a fascinating mixture of hip-hop, klezmer, bass and other sounds.
The Socalled Movie, a documentary directed by Garry Beitel, features Katie Moore, Fred Wesley (previously played with James Brown), C-Rayz Walz, David Krakauer, Matt Haimovitz, Arkady Gendler, Benjamin Steiger Levine, D-Shade, [...]

The Sabes JCC will present an all-youth production of the recent Broadway hit, 13, by Tony award-winning composer, Jason Robert Brown, and directed by Adam Arnold. Performances will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, July 28 and 29; and 10 a.m. Saturday, July 30 at the JCC, 4330 Cedar Lake Rd. S., St. Louis Park.
13 [...]

An ad in our June 25 edition publicized a July 10 show by comedian Cathy Ladman (7-25-08 AJW). The show, which was planned for Pepitos’ Parkway Theater in south Minneapolis, has been cancelled.
It has not been rescheduled.