fbpx
George Robinson

George Robinson

The Six-Day War changed Israel’s film industry forever

Of course, this is a gross oversimplification that does an injustice to both Zohar and Millo, but in essence, the remarkable and swift victory of Israeli forces in 1967 tore a veil of insecurity off the standard cinematic discourse around issues of Zionism and personal self-sacrifice and gave the nation\’s filmmakers the right to a certain heroic panache without-guilt. It was a sunny day that lasted only a short while, ended by the storms of the Yom Kippur War a mere six years later, but it was quite real.

Music: Shabbat joins ‘Lounge’ lineup

Listening to \”The Shabbat Lounge\” (Craig N Co.), the latest album in Craig Taubman\’s \”Lounge\” series, your first thought is, \”Gee, this is such a natural, why didn\’t he begin the series with this one instead of shuffling through the holidays?\” The answer, I suspect, is that the songs for Shabbat are so familiar that Taubman felt on surer ground tinkering with less well-known material.

Originality trumps repetition in the holiday songs battle

I will be frank. I\’m tired of hearing the same holiday songs over and over. So the best Chanukah present I\’ve received this year is a pile of Chanukah-themed CDs with lots of new holiday songs, many of them quite good.

Red diaper babies seen anew in ‘Commune’

It\’s not on his resume, but filmmaker Jonathan Berman is really an anthropologist. Each of his three acclaimed documentaries, \”The Shvitz,\” \”My Friend Paul\” and his latest, \”Commune,\” is an examination of a small self-selected community.<

Violinist Joshua Bell walks in the footsteps of masters

Bell is, by his own admission, more of a cultural Jew than a religious one. \”My mother is Jewish, a very typical Jewish mother,\” he said. \”She was very involved in my practicing. Both my parents were behind me and loved music. But for me, Jewishness was very much a cultural tie. I feel very close to the Jewish side of the family. I grew up with my Jewish cousins, going to all the bar mitzvahs, so I feel very close to that side, and I identify myself as being Jewish.\”

[authorpage]

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.