Tom Tugend
Amid turmoil, Wieseltier sees clear path in Middle East
You have to sympathize with public speakers asked to deliver carefully prepared lectures on the situation in the Middle East, where events have a habit of overtaking incisive scholarly analyses. So it befell Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic, prolific writer and all-around public intellectual, who was the speaker at the ninth annual Daniel Pearl Lecture at UCLA last week.
End of the line for Holocaust-themed films?
Is the Holocaust passe for Hollywood and the world’s filmmakers? This is the first year in at least half a century that not a single Oscar or Golden Globe entry has focused on the horrors of the Shoah.
Maria Altmann, recovered Klimt paintings from Austria, dies at 94
Maria Altmann, whose seven-year battle to recover her family’s Nazi-looted paintings riveted the art and legal worlds, died Monday (Feb. 7) at 94 after a prolonged illness in her Los Angeles home.
‘Brooklyn’ mines pathos, humor of 1st-gen journey
The original title of Jake Ehrenreich’s show-in-the-making was a rather bland “Growing Up in America,” but, fortunately, it will open Feb. 16 at American Jewish University under the more pointed title, “A Jew Grows in Brooklyn.”\n\nHow the title change came about is described by his director, Jon Huberth, in the companion book to the show.
Danish filmmaker finds hope despite family’s dark history
Susanne Bier, whose Danish film, “In a Better World,” is a favorite for Oscar honors, is an anomaly.
Coens’ ‘Grit’ at top of Oscar list, with a king and a social networker
With “The King’s Speech” garnering 12 nods, royalty led the Oscar nomination parade, but Jewish contenders had their shining moments.
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