And They’re Off
Jewish Journal
June 18, 1998
First they made the desert bloom. Now they want tomake it pay eight-to-one in the fifth.
Category
June 18, 1998
Fatal Flaws
Rabbi Elazar Muskin
June 18, 1998
Students of drama are well acquainted withAristotle\’s view about the \”fatal flaw.\” Protagonists of tragedy, nomatter how exalted, are brought down by a tragic flaw from within:bad judgment or bad character.
Watch Your Language
Charles Marowitz
June 18, 1998
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, with front-runners such as T.S. Eliot, Christopher Fry and Archibald Macleish, there was a concerted effort to revive language in the American theater. The buzzword was \”heightened speech\” and, although all of these writers essentially wrote verse, producers tried to steer clear of the word \”poetry.\” They sensed that American theatergoers would recoil from any attempts to have anything as exotic as that foisted upon them. Just as, at around the same period, when they were risking capital on shows like \”The Most Happy Fella\” and the early works of Gian Carlo Menotti, they avoided the word \”opera.\” Music-drama seemed a safer rubric.
Cover Story
Joel Kotkin
June 18, 1998
The recent revelations about the South OrangeCounty Community College District\’s desire to offer a course that, inpart, blames the Mossad and the Anti-Defamation League for theassassination of President John F. Kennedy read something like a badclipping from the area\’s far-right past.
Building Bridges Through Teaching
John Fishel
June 18, 1998
I thought the readers of The Jewish Journal wouldbe interested in one of the many things The Jewish Federation does tobuild bridges between Israel and our community.
Opinion
Avi Davis
June 18, 1998
The sight of Israeli Minister of Tourism Moshe Katzav being kissed by Israeli singer and Eurovision song contest winner Dana International must have made someone, somewhere blush. But you wouldn\’t have known it by reading any of the Israeli papers last week. With the kind of glee that is only reserved in the Holy Land for the smashing of idols, Israeli editorialists pounced on Dana\’s victory as further proof that Israel, having produced not just a Eurovision contest winner, but a transsexual one, has finally arrived as a nation among nations. So finally, we have the good word from Israel: Androgyny is in. Ethnocentricism (read Judaism with its intolerance for diversity and priggish emphasis on sexual purity), is most definitely out.
The Arts
Skip Heller
June 18, 1998
As Israel nears its 50th birthday, events have shifted attentionaway from the stalled peace talks. What dominates the headlines nowis the warlike rhetoric among Jewish factions — both within Israeland in the Diaspora — as they clash over the issue of religiouspluralism.
Seder Ceremonies
Jewish Journal
June 18, 1998
When the Weber family invites the Wolfson familyfor seder, we are asked to prepare a presentation on some aspect ofthe seder ceremony. The presentation could be a d\’rash, an explanation of whatthe Haggadah is trying to say. But, over the years, our presentationshave also been given as a play, a song, and a take-off on a gameshow.
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