Inspired by both African-American blues and jazz and Jewish liturgical music, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen et al., along with lyricists such as Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers and Ira Gershwin, created a song track for generations of lovers, as they “were conducting a passionate romance with America,” writes Lehman.

Here’s the Nextbook trailer for A Fine Romance:

A Fine Romance from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Although this “Jewish Tea Party” meeting took place on Purim, apparently it’s not a joke. In a report for the Forward, Gal Beckerman finds a small group, no more than 15 people, gathered in a Brooklyn synagogue basement for an interactive session with Rabbi Mordechai Yitzchok Friedman.

The rabbi sticks to some central points in his talk, which was videotaped:

Almost everyone is an antisemite, even most of the “so-called Jews” you know; the “Jewish way” to solve Israel’s problems is mass murder; all blacks in America want to see Jews dead; oh, and a revolution must take place in Israel so that it can fulfill its true promise and become a theocracy. It is his unified theory of Jews and their place in the world.

The modest gathering, in Friedman’s view, amounts to the founding of a “Jewish Tea Party,” an attempt to jump on the bandwagon of the movement that is rattling the Republicans and providing grist for the mainstream press mill.

Here’s a taste of what went on:

Jewish Tea Party from Jewish Forward on Vimeo.

In a fascinating new documentary, Harlan: In the Shadow of “Jew Süss,” director Felix Moeller looks at Harlan’s career and plumbs the controversies about the notorious director — who enjoyed a privileged lifestyle while making films for Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels — in interviews with Harlan’s children, nieces and nephews, and grandchildren.

Harlan’s niece, Christiane Kubrick, was married to the late director Stanley Kubrick, who was Jewish; she tells a story about Kubrick’s apprehension about meeting Veit Harlan and other family members in Germany. Also, she reveals that Kubrick explored making a film about Harlan and how he worked within the Nazi bureaucracy, but the project never came to fruition.

In another twist of interest to film fans, reviews of the documentary have noted that Harlan’s 1945 epic Kolberg was the basis for the film-within-a-film, Stolz Der Nation, in Quentin Tarantino’s Oscar-nominated Inglourious Basterds.

The documentary’s title refer’s to Harlan’s diabolically anti-Semitic film, Jud Süß (1940), or Jew Süss, which film critics, and Harlan’s descendants, view as a cinematic tool of murder. Goebbels ordered that Nazi SS officers and concentration camp guards be made to view the film, a melodrama about a powerful and wicked Jewish character in 18th century Germany.

Harlan was twice tried for war crimes, but was acquitted both times. He continued to make movies — which were dated and mediocre — in the 1950s.

Here is more about the documentary:

Veit Harlan died in 1964, on the island of Capri, Italy.

Harlan: In the Shadow of “Jew Süss” will have its local premiere next month at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. The American Jewish World will publish a story about the film and director Felix Moeller prior to its festival screening. — Mordecai Specktor

Here is an excerpt from Fox9.com:

Gary Miller, a subcontractor who installed floors for Home Valu, is waiting to be paid $15,000 by the home improvement chain founded by former U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz.

Miller is one of dozens of installers across Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin who say “Home Valu” collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from customers then didn’t pay the subs that completed the jobs.

FOX 9 previously reported that the Boschwitz family run business is also under investigation by police in the Milwaukee area, suspected of violating the Wisconsin “theft by contractor” law, which can be a felony. Minnesota’s law is similar except it’s a gross misdemeanor. Both states mandate that if a company such as Home Valu is paid by customers, its first obligation is to pay the subcontractors regardless of its own financial problems.

And here’s the Fox 9 video:

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the Lord am your God. — Leviticus 19:9-10

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

As it turns out, there is more to the subject of Jews and food than bagels and lox. And kugel, brisket and gefilte fish.

Nigel Savage, founder and executive director of Hazon, the largest Jewish environmental group in the United States, has been busy promoting what he calls the “new Jewish food movement.” Through the annual Hazon Food Conference, Savage and his associates are spreading the word about contemporary food issues — Jewish food culture, cutting-edge food law and policy, kosher meat issues, health and nutrition, cooking and gardening, and Israeli food and agriculture.

Hazon’s Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program links consumers with small farmers, which enables the Jewish community to support local, sustainable agriculture. In the CSA program, individuals and families pre-purchase a share of a farmer’s produce for an entire season.

As part of Adath Jeshurun Congregation’s Synaplex Shabbat program, which will take place March 12-13, Savage, a native of Manchester, England, will speak about the Jewish food movement and other topics as the shul’s Numero-Steinfeldt Scholar.

Savage spoke on the phone with the Jewish World last week as he was preparing to leave San Francisco for New York City.

Asked about the irony of his promotion of “eco-Judaism” at a mammoth suburban synagogue, many of whose members drive around town in SUVs, live in MacMansions and, generally, leave a large carbon footprint, Savage allowed, “First of all, it’s a great question.”

In his view, however, this is the “most exciting time” for both urban and suburban Jews to engage with environmental concerns.

“For urban Jews, I think that we’re seeing a strong trend towards living intentionally… and being able to walk to work and bike to work,” he explains. “For suburban Jews, there are opportunities that people in the cities don’t have. In the suburbs there are many more opportunities for synagogues and Jewish institutions to start to grow their own food.”

Savage mentioned that during a recent visit to Denver, he learned that a group was taking five acres of land next to a Jewish day school and starting a small farm.

“You can’t do stuff like that in Manhattan; but you can do that in the Denver suburbs; and you could do that in the Minneapolis or St. Paul suburbs.”

The last time Savage visited this neck of the woods was in the summer of 2000, on a stopover during a Seattle to Washington, D.C., bicycle ride. It was Hazon’s first such event and drew 11 riders. Savage’s biography notes that he is the “first English Jew to have cycled across South Dakota on a recumbent bike.”

“We came through the Twin Cities and we did a fun ride from the Minneapolis JCC [now the Sabes JCC] to the St. Paul JCC, and back,” he recalls. “Actually, this may be the first time I’m going to be back in town since then.”

Hazon (Hebrew for “vision”), which is based in New York City, has grown quickly in the intervening years — the group’s bicycle rides in the United States and Israel (in partnership with the Arava Institute) have become popular events.

“We do rides every year in New York and the Bay Area; we’ve taken 700 people to Israel in the last six years” on bike rides, comments Savage. “We do a food tour in Israel, a ‘green teen’ tour in Israel.” He also mentioned Hazon’s 41 CSA programs across the country.

Ella Mogilevsky, an Adath Jeshurun member who lives in Minneapolis, participated in Hazon’s 2001 ride in New York. She met Savage when he was here in 2000, and was inspired to ride with the group.

“It involved a lot of intricate planning, to get from Minneapolis to New York, and find a bike” for the two-day, 100-mile ride, she remembers. She was the oldest of the riders, 68 at the time.

The riders enjoyed home hospitality, and Mogilevsky recalls that the “people were so wonderful; one was a Modern Orthodox family who couldn’t be nicer.”

The retired medical technologist said the “exciting part was biking into New York” and being greeted by a crowd of students at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

“Nigel is an incredible man,” says Mogilevsky. “When I biked with him, he rode a recumbent — the 100 miles. And he was such an upper, and he just cheered us on.”

On Friday evening, March 12, Savage will speak at a congregational dinner on “Eco-Judaism and the Art of Bicycle Maintenance.” He will give a d’var Torah, “Sacred Vessels: How the Jewish Food Movement Is Changing the World,” on Saturday morning; and then talk on “Environmental Issues for Environmental Skeptics” at a Learn after Lunch event.

The Synaplex Shabbat, which is titled “Jews, Food and Planet Earth: A New Vision,” will feature sessions on kashrut with Rabbi Barry Cytron, an informal Torah discussion with Steve Lear, a demonstration on savory salad-making with Zehorit Heilicher, and other topics.

Regarding Adath Jeshurun’s CSA program, Mike Jacobs, of Easy Bean Farm in Milan, Minn., will be at the synagogue to explain how people can get involved in the farmer-consumer partnership. Around Minnetonka, Jacobs is known as “Farmer Mike.”

A full schedule of Shabbat events can be found at: adathjeshurun.org, or call the synagogue at 952-545-2424.

Rabbi Yonatan Sadoff, assistant rabbi at Adath Jeshurun, says that the message Savage will bring is consonant with the teachings that congregants hear at the shul “about how to live a better, more conscious life.”

In the Jewish tradition over 3,000 years, there has been much written about kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) and fostering an ethical relationship with the natural world. Simply saying prayers over wine and bread, and Birkat Hamazon, focuses minds on the holy nature of the food we ingest.

Also, Rabbi Sadoff mentions the law of baal tashchit, which commands us not to waste the natural world. The specific passage in the Tanach (Deuteronomy 20: 19-20) says that in warring against a city, you cannot “destroy its trees… You may eat of them, but must not cut them down.”

The “general ethos of Judaism,” according to Sadoff, does not support some of the wasteful practices that characterize contemporary consumerist society. “Nigel is now talking a lot about ‘fasting and feasting’… which has a lot to do with making eating a more holy activity, a more appreciated activity and, most importantly, a more conscious activity.”

Sadoff mentions that the Talmud contains a teaching “about it being a terrible shame to be eating while walking through the marketplace…. And now we live in a culture of eating in our cars, and eating while we’re walking, and eating in the least holy way that we can — completely disengaged from where our food is coming from, what is the process of making it, what’s in it, how nutritious it is.”

The Synaplex Shabbat, featuring Hazon’s Nigel Savage, at Adath Jeshurun will offer local Jews a chance to delve deeper into food issues, and to gain practical knowledge about how we can live in harmony with the Earth, which sustains all life.

***

For information about Hazon, go to: hazon.org.

(American Jewish World, 3.5.10)

By DORIS RUBENSTEIN

It’s always hard to do a good job when your boss is looking over your shoulder. For the actors in Hiding in the Open, which premiered Feb. 25 at the History Theatre in St. Paul, it’s even harder to perform well with the real-life protagonist of your play sitting in the audience.

Hiding in the Open, directed by Hayley Finn, tells the survival story of St. Louis Park resident Dr. Sabina Schwartz Zimering and her sister Helka. It is based on Zimering’s memoir of the same name and adapted for the stage by Kira Obolensky.

A Theater Review

The play has yet deeper roots in Minnesota because it owes its genesis to a Star Tribune article written by Peg Meier, also in the audience on opening night — another reason for an actor to be jittery.

Despite all these pressures, the cast of Hiding in the Open does an admirable job of bringing Zimering’s story of masquerade, deception, intrigue, loyalty, altruism and hope to the stage.

American Jewish World readers know that one way for Jews to survive the Holocaust was to take on Christian identities, and this was the survival method of Sabina (Elise Langer) and Helka (Devon Solorow), who are mere teenagers when the story begins in 1939 Poland.

Their family is forced to leave their comfortable, middle-class home to share an apartment for three years with grudging strangers in the ghetto. Scenic designer Erica Zaffarano does an excellent job of creating a sense of imprisonment for the family with her use of sparse props of metal and metallic gray to enclose the family’s room and the ghetto outside their window in Act One.

At their mother’s urging, and with the help of their caring Polish teacher (Laura Esping), the sisters obtain false identification papers and start their journey across Poland and Germany. This is the first, but not the last time that they encounter and are helped by Righteous Gentiles whose memories are planted at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

The play makes repeated use of suitcases as a metaphor for memories, and it is an excellent device. Their portability lends their use as a variety of props. What is more important is the symbolism of their contents, which are exposed at the play’s opening — each item has a connotation for a person, an event, a value that sustains the sisters and reminds them of who they truly are.

Even after they are forced to abandon their suitcases, following a humiliating and dangerous interrogation by Nazi officials, at the play’s end Sabina tearfully offers the audience the truth she has learned in her wanderings: “We left everything behind, but nothing ever left us.”

While Hiding in the Open’s story is presented chronologically, each scene is somewhat of a vignette, complete in many ways in itself. It is as if the actors are reading aloud occasional entries from Sabina’s diary, learning truths of a life that can only be exposed in the secrecy and confidentiality of a diary — only this diary was written decades after the events it chronicles.

Kudos to Langer and Solorow for their stamina in remaining onstage nearly every minute and always in character. There is a large supporting cast, most of whom play numerous parts. Special praise must be reserved for E.J. Subkoviak, who morphs from cuddly Uncle Sam into a variety of progressively dislikeable Nazis. He reaches his zenith (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) as a diabolical wolf in Sabina’s nightmare. This effect is heightened by the lighting design of Chris Johnson.

The History Theatre’s original production of Hiding in the Open was staged in 2004. The facts of the story have not changed, but each audience brings something new to the performance, and it is worth seeing again and again.

The History Theatre is offering programs, free to all, on March 7 and March 14 to expand the understanding of the audience and the community of the history and meaning of the Holocaust. So see it once, and then see it again with wiser eyes. As Sabina’s mother reminds her, “They can take away your things, but they cannot take away what you know.”

***

Hiding in the Open runs through March 21. For tickets and a complete performance schedule, call 651-292-4323 or visit: www.historytheatre.com.

(American Jewish World, 3.5.10)

By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

In the first collaboration between Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater and SteppingStone Theatre, choreographer and dancer Stuart Pimsler chose to adapt the children’s book Tales of a Gambling Grandma by Dayal Kaur Khalsa.

Pimsler says that “as a rookie father,” he read the book to his daughter, “when she was quite young. I became fond of [Khalsa’s] work. My Grandmother’s Tsotchkes: Tales of a Gambling Grandma, which will have its world premiere March 12-28 at the theater in St. Paul’s Historic Hill District, stays true to the book and adds some new elements.

Khalsa, a New York City native, told the story of an immigrant woman who embodied “a combination of street smarts and old-world superstition,” according to Pimsler. In adapting the work of the illustrator turned author, Pimsler weaved in stories and life lessons passed on by his own grandmother in New York — along with her treasured keepsakes from the Old World, hertsotchkes.

During a conversation with the Jewish World last week, Pimsler discussed the creative process for his latest work — the first stage adaptation of a book by Khalsa — and how his cast of mainly non-Jewish young actors approached the material.

My Grandmother’s Tsotchkes tells the story of a Jewish Russian immigrant and her American granddaughter, May, through dance and movement. The grandmother offers such pearls of advice as, “Always keep borscht in the refrigerator in case the Cossacks come to your house in Queens!”

Pimsler mentions that his play, which conveys a universal message of affectionate bonds across the generations, also will offer non-Jewish viewers “an insight into aspects of Jewish culture.” Like a shiva — the play begins with the grandmother’s death, then dramatizes her life in flashbacks.

“There’s something meaty here,” Pimsler allows, regarding 12-year-old May “watching the passing of her grandmother.”

As for the cast members, a talented group of 22 young actors, singers and dancers, Pimsler comments, “They had questions about why family members sit on short stools and cut their suits,” as depicted in the shiva scene.

There are some Jewish kids in the show, including Naveh Shavit-Lonstein, a young actor who has been trodding the boards at local theaters in recent years. Pimsler enlisted Naveh’s mother, Rebecca, as a dialect coach, and his father, Rabbi Alan Shavit-Lonstein, of Temple of Aaron Synagogue in St. Paul, as a consultant on the fine points of Jewish rituals.

Apart from the death scene that opens the show, Pimsler stresses that the show is a lively affair, with song and dance propelling the story. He wrote lyrics and Gary Rue, a well-known local songwriter and performer, wrote the music for the songs in the show.

“The first song, sung by the grandmother, is ‘Tsotchkes to You, Memories to Me,’” says Pimsler. The tune conveys the message that “one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.”

He adds, “Grandma, in a way, was sort of an early feminist; she defeats an entire army of Cossacks in Russia,” explains Pimsler. Martha Benda, an adult cast member, plays the grandmother; Naveh Shavit-Lonstein portrays Grandpa Louie, a plumber.

In addition to the card-sharp granny and May, Pimsler added two characters for the show — they are friends of May, one Jewish, one not Jewish. (“The book was a jumping-off point,” he says.)

Regarding the choreography, Pimsler says that many scenes lent themselves to music and dance: when the grandmother is attacked by Cossacks, her escape to America, when the grandparents fall in love and then marry, and a family meal in a Chinese restaurant.

My Grandmother’s Tsotchkes is a play for all ages, and Pimsler says that SteppingStone Theatre — which bills itself as “St. Paul’s professional theater for young actors” — has become “part of the children’s theater fabric in the Twin Cities,” although the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis operates with a significantly larger budget and gets more publicity.

In 2007, SteppingStone moved into a 100-year-old former church, which is located across the street from William Mitchell Law School. The sanctuary was converted into a 430-seat theater.

Since Pimsler’s stage play has a Jewish immigrant theme, he plans to conduct workshops at senior residences in the Twin Cities. He said that participants can bring their own tsotchkes and tell the stories that go with them.

***

My Grandmother’s Tsotchkes will be performed March 12-28 at SteppingStone Theatre, 55 Victoria St. N., St. Paul. For showtimes and information, go to: steppingstonetheatre.org or call 651-225-9265.

(American Jewish World, 3.5.10)

Jewish pundits are weighing in about the consequences of these activities. Should Jews actively confront what they see as anti-Zionist and sometimes anti-Semitic expressions? Or are these manifestations of little consequence and best ignored?

Blogging on New Voices, the digital version of the “National Jewish Student Magazine,” Sam Melamed points out that IAW is actually a 14-day event; and he would like to brand it as “Two Weeks of Bashing Bibi and His Cronies in Israel’s Military-Security Complex, But NOT Jews In General, While Also Shedding Light on Legitimate Palestinian Grievances.” Looking at Israel’s treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank, Melamed concludes that calling ”Israel an Apartheid state is not without provocation.”

In point/counterpoint fashion, Ben Sales gainsays Melamed’s blog post. He writes: “The fact is that Sam is wrong in his characterization of both IAW, as well as of Israel as an apartheid state. Sam writes that IAW is not anti-Zionist, but IAW’s website states that ‘Prominent Palestinians, Jewish anti-Zionists, and South Africans have been at the forefront of this struggle [emphasis mine].’ In addition, the IAW logo illustrates the land of Israel/Palestine in completely Palestinian colors, flanked by two Palestinians. In its own words, IAW is anti-Zionist.”

(There seems to be a variation in the nomenclature here: “Israeli Apartheid Week” or “Israel Apartheid Week.”)

Brenda Katten, writing in The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, takes on the label of “apartheid state,” as applied to contemporary Israel:

My first visit to South Africa was in 1987, when I was invited by WIZO South Africa to address various groups throughout the country. I will never forget the horror I felt when in Durban seeing large notices saying “black only beach,” “white only beach.” This was just the beginning of coming face-to-face with a regime that separated every aspect of life for its citizens. Separate transport, separate health clinics, separate schooling – it went on and on.

Today, I live in Herzliya Pituah, close to the marina. We often wander down to there to enjoy the wonderful view of boats as well as to enjoy all the facilities of a seaside resort. There is never an occasion when we do not see a cross section of what makes up Israel’s multifaceted population. Whether the haredi section of the community or the Muslim and Christian Arab sector — all are enjoying what this seashore city has to offer and doing so together. This is something of which we can be exceedingly proud.

Katten, co-chair of Europeans for Israel and public relations chair of World WIZO, also is disturbed by the “increasing number of Jewish students who are taking on board the overwhelming anti-Israel rhetoric with which they are being confronted. They simply do not have the tools or the knowledge to cope with this situation. When the chair of the Israel Society at Cambridge University sees fit to cancel a visit of Israeli historian Benny Morris for fear of upsetting the Islamic Society, the time has come to recognize the seriousness of the challenge.”

And you might be surprised, or not, about the listing of Israelis who are participating in IAW events in the U.S. and Europe. Haaretz reports, for example, that Israeli activist and filmmaker Shai Carmeli-Pollak is screening his 2006 documentary Bil’in Habibti, about Israel Defense Forces violence, at Boston-area universities. Also, Jeff Halper, the Israel-based professor of anthropology who is co-founder and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (and a native of Hibbing, Minn.), was scheduled to speak on “Israeli Apartheid: The Case For BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions]” at Glasgow University.

The participation of several Israelis in the anti-Zionist events is “atrocious,” David Katz, a member of Britain’s Jewish Board of Deputies who grew up in South Africa and has long fought the comparison between that country’s racial segregation and Israel’s ethnic divisions, told Haaretz. ”They are free to do as they please, but it’s atrocious,” he said of the participating Israelis. “I think they don’t understand the analogy they are making… which is insulting to those who suffered under apartheid.

“It’s like calling things ‘holocaust’ which are not the Holocaust or terming something ‘genocide’ which is not genocide,” said Katz. — Mordecai Specktor

Today, I checked out the links to an outfit called the Unity Coalition for Israel (UCI). Based in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, UCI displays a clear anti-Muslim bias; perhaps, in their minds, this constitutes support for Israel.

However, UCI has posted a Web video that is a mish-mash of deceptively edited clips under the heading “Obama Admits He is Muslim.” This kind of garbage qualifies UCI for the Wingnut File.

You can find the video HERE.

It is one thing to offer skewed and specious arguments; posting propaganda fit only for the paranoid political fringe puts the Unity Coalition for Israel beyond the pale, so to speak. — Mordecai Specktor

Here’s a clip from Crossing the Line:
The makers of Crossing the Line argue that a line “is crossed when anti-Zionist rhetoric turns into a pure form of anti-Semitism.”

“Behind a veil of criticizing Israeli policies, professors, teaching assistants and other university authorities are putting Jewish students at risk,” says director Kopping. “This film provides a critical understanding of a dangerous trend on campus that we unfortunately see is growing.”

He adds, “What we have noticed on many campuses is that Jewish students know the accusations made against Israel are abusive and anti-Semitic but they do not know how to respond. Empowering students through education and knowledge is the only solution to the growing epidemic of anti-Semitism on campus.”

In the case of Obsession, a previous Kopping and Shore collaboration, that video is long on violent footage, heightened by ominous background music, and short on any constructive solutions. There is certainly an area where anti-Israel sentiments veer into vile anti-Semitism; but Crossing the Line looks like another hyperbolic effort to stir up fear (with the trademark spooky music), a la Obsession, again with scant attention to building inter-ethnic and inter-religious bridges. — Mordecai Specktor