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March 11, 2009
‘Being Erica’ Takes Jewish Slant on Single Life
In the March 19 episode of SOAPnet’s time-travel fantasy, “Being Erica,” 30-something Erica Strange (Erin Karpluk) is zapped back to the day of her bat mitzvah, shocked to find her grownup brain inside her 13-year-old body as she recites her haftarah portion, which she barely remembers.
Sholem Aleichem, Gogol Show Two Views of Shtetl Jews
Russians, Jews and literature scholars get excited about jubilee years, and for those who fit any of these categories, 2009 is a big year. One hundred and fifty years ago this month, a writer who would immortalize the Russian Jew in literature, Solomon Rabinovich (1859-1916) — better known by his literary persona, Sholem Aleichem — was born in the town of Pereyaslav, near Kyiv. This spring also marks the 200th birthday of Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852), who was born about 100 miles to the east of Kyiv, in the town of Sorochintsy. Gogol, too, helped to immortalize the Russian Jew in literature, but in a more problematic way: the Jews who crop up around the margins of his stories, most of them crafty market vendors, money-lenders and tavern keepers, are anti-Semitic stereotypes, an unsettling detail in the work of one of the greatest comic writers of modern literature.\n
Doctor Calms Radiation Fears With Nature Photos
The walls of Dr. Bernard Lewinsky’s office resemble the pages of a National Geographic calendar: sweeping lake vistas and verdant forests brush up against sculptured rock formations and sun-mottled Yosemite hills. Looking at his photographs, patients remember vacations, times when they felt relaxed and at peace. It takes their minds off their cancer.
Pancreatic Cancer Studies Hopeful, But Funding Lags
It’s the fourth deadliest cancer, which will claim an estimated 34,000 lives this year. There are no surefire methods for prevention or early detection. And it resists treatments found to be effective in other cancers.
Katsav to be Indicted, P.A. Prime Minister Resigns
Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav will be indicted on sexual offense charges, the attorney general announced.\n\nMenachem Mazuz said Sunday that Katsav will be indicted on rape and indecent assault charges involving several women who worked closely with him when he served as tourism minister and president. He also will be charged with obstruction of justice.
Community Rallies for Woman’s Divorce, UCLA Acquires Jewish Artifacts
Chanting “Stop Abuse” and “Free Your Wife,” 200 people rallied on the eve of Purim in front of the Fairfax-area home of a man who refuses to grant his wife a Jewish divorce.
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