In May 1942, film of the Warsaw Ghetto was discovered in an East German archive. But the later discovery of a long-missing reel, which included multiple takes and cameramen staging scenes, showed the truth behind the making of a Nazi propaganda film. The Film Society of Minneapolis/Saint Paul (formerly Minnesota Film Arts) will screen A [...]

Striking shirtwaist makers selling copies of The Call, the New York socialist newspaper, are depicted in Triangle Fire, a documentary film, part of the PBS American Experience series, which airs Feb. 28 on TPT-2. The film, directed by Jamila Wignot, highlights a period when Jewish immigrants flooded into America seeking better lives for themselves and [...]

Some years ago, I wrote about a new album from jazz guitarist Roni Ben-Hur and suggested that the Dakota Jazz Club might book him for a show. That didn’t come to pass, but I succeeded with the St. Paul JCC’s music impresario Jeffrey Richman. The Israeli native will perform in concert on the evening of [...]

Now out on DVD, the documentary Neshoba: The Price of Freedom (First Run Features), tells the story of justice delayed and denied. In the summer of 1964, three young civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — a black from Mississippi and two New York Jews — were murdered in rural Neshoba [...]

St. Louis Park native Peter Himmelman can add artist to his list of professional credits. Pictured below is a detail from “Seismic 4400,” which is featured on the cover of his latest album, The Mystery and the Hum (Himmasongs Recordings). Writing on his Web site, Himmelman, the artist, says, “In almost every case, I’m lead somewhere [...]

A new two-CD set from Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series, Volume 9 — The Witmark Demos (Columbia/Legacy), showcases the songwriting talents of the troubadour from Hibbing, Minn. The 47 songs on the album were recorded by Dylan, accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, harmonica and piano, for Leeds Music, his first music publisher, in 1962, and [...]

Lynda Monick-Isenberg’s “K’riah: Rending the Garment” (below), graphite and gouache on plastic velum, is part of Sketch Work, an exhibit of drawings on display Dec. 16–Jan. 22 at Form + Content Gallery in Minneapolis. According to curator Christopher Atkins, the artists were asked to “think about sketching in new terms.” In her artist statement, Monick-Isenberg said [...]

The Jewish Women’s Artists’ Circle has remounted Tikun:Repair, an exhibit of works interpreting an aspect of the Jewish concept of tikkun olam (repairing the world), at the Basilica in downtown Minneapolis. According to Doris Rubenstein, 18 unique pieces of art are displayed “in close proximity to traditional Catholic statuary of saints and angels,” making the exhibition [...]

Some critics have sarcastically referred to Birthright Israel, the free Jewish youth trip to Israel, as “Brainwash Israel.” That typifies the questioning mentality of writer and illustrator Sarah Glidden, who packs her bags and also carries a set of left-wing beliefs about Israel’s policies, as she embarks on a Birthright tour. Her memoir, packed with [...]

Jazz pianist Tamir Hendelman, a native of Tel Aviv, Israel, is joined by bassist Marco Panascia and esteemed drummer Lewis Nash on a new album, Destinations (Resonance Records). From the lyrical “Israeli Waltz” to Charlie Parker’s composition “Anthropology,” and the Lerner and Loewe standard “On the Street Where You Live,” Hendelman shows pianistic virtuosity on these [...]