Revisiting ‘Anne Frank’
Anne Frank, the precocious diarist who died at 15 in Bergen-Belsen, would have been 80 years old on June 12, and Los Angeles is observing the anniversary with two events.
On June 9, the Skirball Cultural Center will reprise George Stevens’ “The Diary of Anne Frank,” marking the film’s 50th anniversary, with two of the surviving stars on hand to share their recollections.
On June 11, 12 and 14, the Museum of Tolerance (MOT) will present live readings from the diary by Asli Bayram, a Turkish German actress who is Muslim and a former Miss Germany.
“The Diary,” written by Anne during the two years she and her family were hiding from the Nazis in a cramped Amsterdam attic, has been translated into 67 languages and has become perhaps the most widely read secular book in the world.
To many school children, in particular, the book has become the main story of the Holocaust, with the author as the Shoah’s iconic figure — a development applauded by many, but raising concerns among some scholars.
As a film, “The Diary of Anne Frank,” based largely on the earlier Broadway play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, was a considerable success, winning three 1959 Oscars and five additional nominations.
Millie Perkins, then a completely unknown fashion model, was plucked from among 10,000 hopefuls for the title role, with Diane Baker as Anne’s sister Margot.
Both actresses will discuss their experiences at the June 9 screening, together with George Stevens Jr., son of the film’s director.
In a phone interview, Perkins, now 73, recalled that she really wanted to follow in the footsteps of her father, a sea captain and merchant mariner. Since women were not eligible for these professions at the time, the petite girl became a fashion model for teen magazines instead.
In the best Hollywood tradition, one day a scout for director Stevens saw a photo of Millie and tapped her for a screen test.
Millie Perkins as Anne Frank in the 1959 film “The Diary of Anne Frank” and today.
At that point, the 20-year-old New Jersey native had never heard of Anne Frank, had no Jewish background and wasn’t particularly interested in a movie career; she turned down the offer of a $250-a-week contract.
She finally gave in when the studio raised the ante to $500, and she remained at that salary level throughout the shooting.
Once Perkins read the diary, “I knew immediately who Anne was; the transference was instant,” she said. “In those days, girls weren’t as sophisticated as they are now; I was really innocent and emotionally inexperienced, and I could fully identify with a 14-year-old girl.”
In October, Perkins will travel to Jerusalem to present her original movie script to Yad Vashem.
A week after the screening, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment will release the film on Blue-ray disc and DVD, with added features.
At the live performances of “Anne Frank: The Diary,” the back story of actress Bayram will add another dimension to her staged readings.
The daughter of a Turkish immigrant “guest worker” in Germany, part of a Turkish diaspora community now numbering 3 million, she early on encountered racial prejudice and discrimination.
One evening, when Bayram was 12 and living in Darmstadt, a drunken neo-Nazi neighbor knocked at her apartment door, pulled out a gun and started shooting, severely wounding Bayram and killing her father.
Soon after, she read “The Diary” and found a special kinship between Anne Frank’s experience and optimism, and her own family story.
Bayram entered the Miss Germany contest in 2005, a rare brunette among the Nordic blondes, and, to everyone’s astonishment, was named the winner.
Starting a career as an actress, she first presented her diary reading in Luxembourg in 2007 to impressive reviews. “Ms. Bayram is emerging as one of Germany’s most convincing and subtle actresses,” wrote The Times of London.
She will join in a Q-and-A session after each of her three performances.
MOT director Liebe Geft, who was first approached by Bayram a year ago, described the actress as “a captivating personality, who speaks beautiful English and sincerely wants to build bridges of understanding.”
Although 64 years after her concentration camp death Anne Frank’s persona appears immutable and the impact of her writing beyond criticism, during the last decade new research and fresh material have given us a much fuller picture of the iconic teenager.
Some academic critics have faulted playwrights and overenthusiastic admirers for turning the young girl into the foremost image and spokesperson of the Holocaust.
“No doubt, Anne was a very talented adolescent and her diary is useful in following her progress from childhood to adolescence,” said professor emeritus Lawrence L. Langer of Simmons College in Boston, who has published widely on the literature and testimony of the Holocaust.
“Anne stopped making entries in her diary before the Frank family was arrested and deported, and up to that point she knew really nothing about the Holocaust, except for an occasional BBC broadcast,” he said.
“Had she survived Bergen-Belsen, she would have been the first to mock her own innocence,” Langer said, scorning particularly the original “sentimentalized” Broadway play, which “isolated Anne completely from her Jewish roots” and ended with her famous curtain line, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
Professor James E. Young, chairman of the Judaic and Near Eastern Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of “The Texture of Memory” and “Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust,” agrees with much of Langer’s criticism.
However, he points out that thanks to the release of parts of the diary, originally expurgated by Anne’s father, as well as extensive interviews with her contemporaries, we are now able to form a more complete picture of her personality.
“She has emerged as a much more complicated, mature and nuanced person than we had thought,” Young said.
Geft, of the Museum of Tolerance, rejects any criticism. “Anne Frank represents the 1.5 million murdered Jewish children and she has sparked the imagination of the entire world,” Geft said.
“Of course, you cannot reduce all Holocaust experience to one person, but you can also not take away from Anne that she has had a transformative impact on millions of children around the globe.”
The June 9 screening of “The Diary of Anne Frank” at the Skirball Cultural Center, co-sponsored by the American Film Institute Legacy Series, will start with a Q-and-A session at 7 p.m., followed by the movie at 7:30 p.m. For ticket information, visit ” title=”www.museumoftolerance.com” target=”_blank”>www.museumoftolerance.com or call 310.772.2452 or 310.772.2505.
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Anti-Semitic Incidents Drop Nationally, Climb 21 Percent in California
While anti-Semitic incidents nationwide declined for the fourth straight year in 2008, attacks on Jews jumped 21 percent in California according to an annual audit released Monday by the Anti-Defamation League.
Leading the way in the Golden State, where reported incidents were up from 186 in 2007 to 226 last year, were a number of high-profile incidents across Los Angeles, particularly the firebombing of The New JCC at Milken in West Hills, vandalism of two upscale Jewish homes in Encino and Tarzana, complete with “F—- Jews” and “Burns Jews” spray-painted on the residential walls, and a brutal attack on an Orthodox man walking home in North Hollywood, whom assailants called a “dirty Jew” while they hit him. Additionally, a swastika was painted onto the door of a Jewish middle-school teacher’s classroom after students read “The Diary of Anne Frank.”
“This is not in terms of numbers an all-time high; there were no murders; it is not a sign we are seeing some terribly disastrous trend,” Amanda Susskind, ADL regional director, said in an interview. “But there were seven assaults, three on members of the Orthodox community. That is a serious thing.”
Susskind said she suspects that many of the incidents, particularly anti-Jewish graffiti, are being perpetrated by young adults.
“You wonder if those are the same kids [from] five years ago, when we started seeing this trend of swastikas on lockers at schools or calling kids ‘so Jewish,’” she said. “We need to catch it in its infancy before it grows into a more pernicious and pervasive hatred.”
Nationally, 1,352 anti-Semitic incidents were reported, including 37 physical assaults, 702 incidences of vandalism and 613 complaints of harassment. That represented a 7 percent decline from 2007 and about 74 percent of 2004’s high of 1,821 reported incidences.
“It is encouraging that the number of anti-Semitic incidents continues to decline, but the sheer volume of incidents reported and the violent nature of many of the physical assaults is a reminder that we cannot be complacent,” ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said in a statement. “Had law enforcement not thwarted the alleged terrorist bombing plot against synagogues in Riverdale, New York, it would have been a horrific anti-Semitic attack.”
— Brad A. Greenberg, Senior Writer
State Senate Hearing on Madoff Losses
Marcia Cholodenko and her husband, Paul, had worked long and hard to enjoy their golden years. They thought they had saved wisely, but on Dec. 11, 2008, they learned they were among the many victims of Bernard Madoff.
His massive Ponzi scheme, to which he pleaded guilty in March and is awaiting sentencing of up to 150 years, stripped Marcia, 72, and Paul, 80, of their savings. Even buying toys for their grandchildren became difficult.
“This is not how we planned to spend these years of our lives,” Marcia Cholodenko said May 28 at the Skirball Cultrual Center.
The Cholodenkos were among about 60 Californians who attended a Madoff-related hearing by the state Senate Select Committee on Investment and Malfeasance. The group constituted a small fraction of Madoff’s California casualties, and all have paid heavy state income taxes on investment profits that never really existed. The purpose of the hearing was to determine what might be done for these individuals.
“We are imploring you people to get the state to give our money back,” said Cholodenko, a retired Los Angeles schools employee. “That was just phantom money.”
Although some of Madoff’s victims have resources beyond their investments in the fund, the individuals who spoke at the Senate hearing were not among them. Many are now scraping to get by.
“Steven Spielberg isn’t here tonight. Larry King isn’t here tonight. Jeffrey Katzenberg isn’t here tonight. Kevin Bacon isn’t here tonight. Tonight are the faces of real folks behind the fraud,” said Sen. Dean Florez, the Senate majority leader and chair of the select committee. “The media has focused on those four individuals, but there are thousands more who were affected by the scandal, and the state needs to hear their voices.”
Florez added: “I don’t think the state of California should participate in victimizing folks twice.”
But returning money paid in taxes isn’t so simple. While the federal Internal Revenue Service has published guidelines allowing Madoff investors to recover up to 95 percent of federal taxes paid on related income during the previous five years, California’s Franchise Tax Board has no such provision.
“We have a federal-state difference,” said Terry Collins, an attorney for the Franchise Tax Board. He added that the state’s legislature would need to pass a law allowing Madoff investors to recover state taxes paid on that income.
No such bill has been filed to date, and another hearing is being scheduled for Sacramento.
— Brad A. Greenberg, Senior Writer
Koretz Claims Win in 5th District
Paul Koretz’s apparent win in Los Angeles’ 5th District City Council seat may not be confirmed by the L.A. County registrar’s office yet, but Koretz told his supporters on May 26 that the seat is his. Analyzing his strengths and weaknesses in the race in an interview with The Journal, Koretz said the backing of such political heavyweights as Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Congressman Henry Waxman helped, along with the labor unions and small-business associations. His own Jewish background and involvement in the community were obvious advantages in the heavily Jewish district, but
What made the race so tight, he believes, was the district’s tradition of electing fresh and “outsider” candidates, and Vahedi’s energetic campaign had some success in casting Koretz as the political insider. Added to that, Koretz said, were the highly unpopular tax measures on the same ballot and general disgust with the state legislature, which might have spilled over into antagonism against Koretz as a former state assemblyman.
By contrast, in the city attorney’s race, there was no doubt about the come-from-behind victory of Carmen “Nuch” Trutanich, who defeated outgoing City Councilman Jack Weiss by more than 11 percentage points. Weiss did not respond directly to requests for comments, but his spokeswoman, Lisa Hansen, e-mailed the following statement: “ Councilman Jack Weiss is grateful for the friendship and support of so many people in the Jewish community and throughout the city over the last eight years, and he wishes Paul Koretz and everyone in city government the best in the years to come.”
— Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor
Group Honors Victims of 1999 JCC Shooting
In the 15 years since former Los Angeles Police Commissioner Ann Reiss Lane founded Women Against Gun Violence, which celebrated its Courageous Leadership Awards Brunch on May 31 at the Skirball Cultural Center, the organization has made a measurable dent in the city’s crime statistics by targeting the suppliers of weapons to this once firearms-obsessed region, taking on the NRA and Charlton Heston, as well as promoting legislation, such as the 1996 West Hollywood Initiative that banned the sale of “Saturday Night Specials.”
Now the organization is following the bullets that come out of those guns. The audience — including Sheriff Lee Baca, City Councilman-elect Paul Koretz, some gunshot-wounded volunteers from the Homeboy Industries and other likeminded attendees — came to honor survivors of the 1999 North Valley Jewish Community Center shooting Mindy Finkelstein and Josh Stepakoff and paralyzed LAPD officer Kristina Ripatti. Keynote speaker Assemblyman Kevin De Léon called for support passage of his “Ammunition Background Check Bill” (AB 962) coming before the California State Assembly this week.
“We have great laws on the books about firearms, and they have done much to reduce the level of violence in this city,” De Léon said, “but the same regulation doesn’t apply to the ammunition. You can walk into any store and buy bullets — you just have to look 18. You can buy a loaf of bread, some laundry detergent and a .38 caliber bullet.”
He explained that while law enforcement can track info about who buys guns, “we don’t have a registry for people who buy handgun ammunition.” He urged regulation of the sale and distribution of handgun ammunition, citing statistics from a 2006 RAND Corporation study that in California, where firearms outnumber people, felons and others prohibited from possessing firearms were able to purchase 10,050 rounds of ammunition in just two months in the city of Los Angeles.
Ann Reiss Lane was inspired to found the organization, she says, at the urging of her friend, feminist Betty Friedan. “Back in 1993, while I was the police commissioner in the Bradley administration, the weapons manufacturers conducted an ad campaign that was appealing particularly to women,” she said. “The majority of gun-owners, of course, were men, but they were pushing the idea that it was fashionable and safe to sport a weapon. They were selling some models in pastel shades — the ad campaign showed guns laid out on furs and jewels. The message was, ‘be safe, pack a handgun.’
“When this ad campaign came out, Betty called me and said we should mobilize women’s organizations around the country. It’s the women who take responsibility for our communities, so we launched the organization in 1994, and we’re still doing good work today.”
Another way the organization pursues its mission of preventing gun violence through legislation, education, advocacy and community mobilization is its newest initiative, the Dodgin’ the Bullet Project, aimed at educating middle school students about issues related to guns in the home, suicide prevention and bullying by suggesting ways to deal with them.
For more information about Dodgin’ the Bullet, visit gunssuck.org.
— Noë Gold, Contributing Writer
JTN Productions Receives $1 Million Grant for Jewish Virtual Portal
JTN Productions has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Jewish Community Foundation (JCF), the charitable asset manager announced Tuesday.
The grant, one of many JTN Productions has received from the JCF over the last two decades, will be used to create Virtual JLA, an online portal for Jewish programming that, according to JTN, “aims to fuel the democratization of Jewish knowledge, prayer, celebration, and community, as well as to let all Jews access the best local resources to discover a connection with Judaism that is both individual and communal.”
Content will include original programming and programming co-produced with other institutions, user-generated material and online classes and text study, live community events and religious services and celebrations.
“We’re hoping that this major grant and the foundation’s sustained best efforts and support will help us leverage this gift into future funding for Virtual JLA so that we can reach out to Jews and non-Jews of all ages and backgrounds throughout Southern California, across the country and around the world,” Jay Sanderson, JTN CEO, said in a prepared statement. “We intend to be the center for Jewish life on the Web.”
— Brad A. Greenberg, Senior Writer
Cantors Sing for Life
Some of Los Angeles’ top cantors gathered for the “Cantors Sing for Life” concert held at Congregation Beth Israel on May 31 to honor the Lodzer Organization for its contributions to Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency response service, and its dedication to saving lives in Israel.
“Ambulances are color blind,” remarked Harry Eisen, president of the Lodzer Organization, to the 300 people seated in the large chapel, mostly members of Lodzer, an L.A.-based charitable organization founded by survivors of the Lodz ghetto and now representing Holocaust survivors from across Europe. “They’re brought into service for civilians, soldiers, the rich and the poor, the young and the old.”
Brother-and-sister team Cantor Marcelo Gindlin of the Malibu Jewish Center and Cantor Mariana Gindlin of Temple Sinai of Glendale produced a lineup of “feel-good” Israeli and liturgical classics, with performances by father-and-son team Cantors Steven and Herschel Walfish of Congregation Beth Israel; Cantor Linda Kates of Stephen S. Wise; Chazzan Danny Maseng of Temple Israel of Hollywood; and Rabbi Cantor Alison Wissot of Temple Judea.
— Orit Arfa, Contributing Writer
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Obama says U.S. could be considered a Muslim country
Remember all the trouble President Obama got in when he said in April that the United States is “not a Christian nation or Jewish nation or Muslim nation?” Well, yesterday morning I heard Obama, speaking with the Washington reporter for the BBC about bringing peace to the Mideast, playing up the Muslim members of his own family and the United States’ large Muslim population. You can watch that interview above. (Thanks for the link, Alice.) Obama reiterated the Muslim population angel in another interview with a French television station.
From The Caucus blog:
In an interview with Laura Haim on Canal Plus, a French television station, Mr. Obama noted that the United States also could be considered as “one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” He sought to downplay the expectations of the speech, but he said he hoped the address would raise awareness about Muslims.
“Now, I think it’s very important to understand that one speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East,” Mr. Obama said. “And so I think expectations should be somewhat modest.”
He previewed several themes and objectives for the speech, which aides said the president intended to tinker with — and rewrite — aboard Air Force One during his 12-hour flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
“What I want to do is to create a better dialogue so that the Muslim world understands more effectively how the United States, but also how the West thinks about many of these difficult issues like terrorism, like democracy, to discuss the framework for what’s happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and our outreach to Iran, and also how we view the prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians,” Mr. Obama said.
The president said the United States and other parts of the Western world “have to educate ourselves more effectively on Islam.”
“And one of the points I want to make is, is that if you actually took the number of Muslim Americans, we’d be one of the largest Muslim countries in the world,” Mr. Obama said. “And so there’s got to be a better dialogue and a better understanding between the two peoples.”
By that token, I think we’d also have more members of the Baha’i faith than anywhere but Iran and India. And, until recently, the United States was more a Jewish country than Israel. Though, I guess, that one’s still up for debate.
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Egypt Bans Marriage to Israelis
After the verdict was read in the Cairo courtroom, Nabih al-Wahsh, an Egyptian attorney, jumped for joy and received an avalanche of telephone calls from friends congratulating him on his latest legal victory.
Al-Wahsh has managed to extract a ruling from Egypt’s Administrative Court — which rules in disputes between citizens and the state — that would force the Egyptian government to strip Egyptians married to Israelis of their Egyptian citizenship. The May 19 ruling was met with the cheers of millions in this populous Arab country.
“This is an historic ruling,” al-Wahsh said to reporters after the ruling. “Egyptians married to Israelis are dangerous to Egypt’s national security, acting in ways that contradict the constitution of their country and Islamic laws,” he said.
Calls flooded into TV talk shows discussing the verdict and readers posted comments on Web sites of newspapers that wrote about it.
Everyone appeared united in elation at the ruling, as well as in hatred of the Jewish state and everything that related to it, even if it was originally Egyptian.
“Israel clamors to become an integral part of the Arab world and to do so it lures Egyptians to get married to its women,” one reader wrote to a local newspaper, commenting on the ruling.
A second writer warned against Israeli plans to use Egyptians married to Israelis as spies, while a third said the sons and the daughters of these people would one day claim property in Egypt, something that would “ease Israel’s hegemony over Egypt yet again.”
Such sentiments among a large chunk of Egypt’s population of about 80 million underscores the wide chasm that distinguishes Egypt at the official level and the same country at the level of its public.
Although Egypt was the first country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, almost 30 years ago, its government and its people still walk two different paths.
Egyptian officials visit Israel, meet members of its cabinet and sign agreements secretly and openly with them, but the people on the street still view Israel as an “enemy,” “imperialist” in nature, and those Egyptians who travel and get married there are seen as “traitors.” These same critics have consistently attempted to abort every possibility of breaking the ice that has blocked the way between Cairo and Tel Aviv for decades now.
In this sense, it is true that Egypt is the “heart of the Arab world,” as President Barack Obama and his advisers like to call it.
As Obama comes to Egypt this week to deliver his promised address to the Muslim world and to discuss prospects for peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians with Egypt’s octogenarian President Hosni Mubarak, the question arises: Does Obama need to talk with Mubarak about Egyptian-Israeli peace as well? (Visit jewishjournal.com for full coverage of Obama’s visit.)
Egyptian analysts say the court ruling asking the government to revoke the nationality of Egyptians married to Israelis should not affect peace between the Jewish state and the country that bore arms against Israel four times in the last 60 years.
“This is just an organizational matter that means to cement Egypt’s grip on its national security,” said Ahmed Omar Hashem, a researcher at the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a think tank in Cairo. “But I need to underline the fact that children born to Egyptian fathers and Israeli mothers would have more affiliation to Israel because they’ll spend most of their lives there. This isn’t an easy matter.”
Some estimates put the number of Egyptians living in Israel between 6,000 and 7,000, although al-Wahsh believes the number could be between 30,000 and 40,000.
The reason people leave Egypt for Israel is not a secret to the people in this country, even among decision-makers themselves. In addition to the fallout from the international economic downturn, which has weighed heavily on the Egyptian economy, Egypt has been suffering its own economic deterioration for years.
In this country, which features the oldest civilization in the Arab Middle East, more than 40 percent of the population lives beneath the poverty line, according to the World Bank.
The economic reform policies of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party have failed to improve living conditions for the majority of the population and have even backfired at times, creating a new class of monopolistic businessmen who control the prices and availability of basic commodities.
Israel, by contrast, is a thriving multiethnic country that enjoys political pluralism and offers Egyptian job seekers a model totally different from in their own country, where jobs are rare, diversity is nonexistent and religious tolerance is scarce.
Part of the antipathy to Israel stems from what Egyptians see on their national TV and read in their newspapers every day. Israeli attacks against the Palestinians are fodder for the editors of news bulletins.
A few weeks ago, TV anchor Mahmud Saad, in an on-air telephone interview, lashed out at Egypt’s Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, who is seeking election to the top post of UNESCO, for inviting Daniel Barenboim, a conductor with Israeli origins and international acclaim, to lead an orchestra at the Egyptian Opera House.
“I hate Israel,” Saad, who hosts the popular talk show “al-Beit Beitak” (“Feel at Home”), shouted while speaking with the minister.
Days later, Egypt’s ex-mufti — a top religious leader who advises the country’s Muslim majority on religious matters — lampooned Arab countries that sign agreements with Israel in a veiled criticism of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
He even called upon Egyptians to offer help to the Palestinians in their “struggle to liberate their lands from Israeli occupation.”
It is not clear whether the Egyptian government will enforce the ruling against Israeli-Egyptian marriages, but it seems to have quenched the thirst of millions here for an action against Israel.
“[These marriages] would usher in a new generation of people who would help Israel implement its imperialistic desires in this region in general and in Egypt in particular,” said Ibrahim al-Enani, a professor of international law from Cairo. “This court ruling doesn’t contradictwith either Egypt’s constitution or international laws,” he added.
Ironically, what might have been missed by the judges who passed the ruling is that most Egyptians living in Israel are married to Israeli women with Arab origins. These people speak the same language as the Egyptians and sometimes also share their same faith.
But in their desire to pour their anger at anything that might represent Israel, the judges and al-Wahsh, who filed the case months ago, did not bring that distinction to the table.
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U.S. Must Be ‘Honest’ with Israel
President Obama said in an interview that it is important for the United States to be more “honest” with Israel than in the past, and reiterated his call for a settlement freeze.
“Part of being a good friend is being honest,” Obama told National Public Radio on Monday, June 1. “And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory in the region, is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests.”
Obama also restated that “the United States has a special relationship with Israel,” alluding to the “huge cross-cultural ties” and shared values between the two countries. The president added that with the threats directed at the Jewish state, “you can understand” why the United States “would feel it was important to back this stalwart ally.”
Obama said he did not believe that “we have to change strong U.S. support for Israel” in order to improve relations with the Muslim world but “do have to retain a constant belief in the possibilities of negotiations that will lead to peace.” Those negotiations require each side to meet its “obligations,” he said, adding, “I’ve said very clearly to the Israelis both privately and publicly that a freeze on settlements, including natural growth, is part of those obligations.”
But in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of that demand, Obama said “it’s still early in the process.”
“I think we’re going to have a series of conversations,” he said.
In a Tuesday interview with the BBC, Obama again emphasized that “it’s still early in the conversation,” adding that “diplomacy is always a matter of a long, hard slog. It’s never a matter of quick results.”
Obama added that “we have not seen a set of potential gestures from other Arab states, or from the Palestinians, that might deal with some of the Israeli concerns.”
Israeli Security Forces Evacuate Outposts
Settlers and right-wing activists reportedly threw stones at Palestinian cars to protest the impending evacuation of West Bank outposts.
The protestors also reportedly blocked roads and burned tires, according to Israel Radio. Up to six Palestinians riding in a minibus were injured, one seriously.
Activists on Monday gathered at the Gilad Farm and Ramat Gilad outposts between Kedumim and Karnei Shomron following news that they would be evacuated.
Meanwhile, security forces on Monday destroyed three caravans during the evacuation of the northern West Bank outpost of Nachalat Yosef, located near the settlement of Elon Moreh.
The riots and evacuations Monday come after Israeli security forces evacuated the West Bank outpost of Shvut Ami near Nablus Saturday evening at the end of Shabbat.
Security forces evacuated about a dozen teenagers from the outpost, located near the Jewish settlement of Kedumim. They also destroyed two wooden huts, according to reports.
The evacuation was conducted without incident, though Daniella Weiss, a settler leader and former Kedumim mayor, said that the evacuation was “brutal.” The forces reportedly cut the outpost’s links to the Kedumim water system.
The teens began to rebuild the outpost on Sunday.
The evacuation comes after a week in which several smaller outposts were cleared out.
Holocaust Revisionist Toben Can Appeal
An Australian court will decide whether a Holocaust revisionist should be jailed for refusing to remove from his Web site material that vilifies Jews and denies the Holocaust.
South Australian Federal Court Justice Anthony Besanko on Tuesday gave Fredrick Toben until June 9 to submit his appeal to the finding of contempt and the accompanying three-month jail sentence.
The German-born founder of the Adelaide Institute, who turned 65 Tuesday, was last month found guilty on 24 counts of contempt by the Federal Court for defying a 2002 court order preventing him from publishing offensive material, including doubting the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz and alleging that Jews are of “limited intelligence.”
Toben’s appeal is scheduled to be heard Aug. 13 before the full bench. Besanko suspended the arrest warrant until that date and ordered Toben not to leave South Australia, except to visit his lawyer in Melbourne.
The long-running case against Toben began in 1996, when Jeremy Jones, a former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, first filed a complaint alleging Toben had published anti-Semitic material on his Web site.
Meanwhile, his successor at the Adelaide Institute, Peter Hartung, is continuing to publish material suggesting “the Holocaust does not exist in reality.”
A current article online continues that “The ‘gas chambers of Auschwitz’ and the ‘extermination of the Jews’ began as wartime propaganda, for the reasons of ‘proving’ to the world how evil the German National Socialist system of government was, and to deflect from the real war crimes of WWII, including the mass firebombing of German cities, whose targets were defenseless women and children.”
Jones’ attorney, Robin Margo, has asked the court to consider taking action against Hartung.
— Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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Feuerstein Feels the ‘Royal Pain’in USA’s New Dramedy
On a recent morning on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Mark Feuerstein received an unexpected phone call from the production office of his new USA Network series, “Royal Pains,” in which he plays an emergency room doctor turned private physician to the jet set in the Hamptons.
The day’s shoot was slated to start earlier than scheduled, a production official said, so Feuerstein had to quickly shave and prepare for his ride out to Long Island in a minivan filled with other cast and crew members. “I’m schlepped around like a child of 7 in Borough Park, Brooklyn,” he quipped. “It’s glamorous, this Hollywood life.”
Actually the 37-year-old actor is grateful for the chance to portray the romantic lead on a prime-time series; he is no stranger to the vagaries of show business.
As a cum laude graduate of Princeton and a Fulbright scholar, Feuerstein once envisioned a career on the stage when a chance audition landed him a regular role on TV’s “Fired Up,” in 1996. Feuerstein seemed poised to become a star when he was cast as affable but neurotic Jewish leads in two more sitcoms, “Conrad Bloom” and “Good Morning, Miami,” playing “fumfering mensches” as he calls them, that also channeled aspects of his own Jewish persona. But his shows were poorly reviewed or short-lived, with one critic even going so far as to refer to Feuerstein as “sitcom kryptonite.”
In a recent phone interview, Feuerstein was still indignant. “Television is a collaborative effort, and no one actor has so much power that he can ‘put a show to bed,’” he said. But, he added, “It is true that I have been through the demise of the American sitcom. I thought it was on its last legs when I was first on ‘Caroline in the City’ and ‘Fired Up’ and ‘Conrad Bloom,’ and I guess I hadn’t put it to bed enough that I had to do ‘Good Morning, Miami’ to truly put to rest my sitcom career,” he said, playing up the irony. “I’ve been through the mill. ‘Royal Pains’ is not my first rodeo.”
Feuerstein campaigned hard for the USA role, which showcases both his dramatic and comic abilities, and could deliver the broad success every actor craves. He certainly relates to his character, Dr. Hank Lawson, who experiences his own share of career ups and downs.
In the pilot on June 4, Lawson first appears as a successful emergency room physician with a gorgeous fiancée and living in a great loft in Manhattan. But when one of the hospital’s major philanthropists dies under his care as a result of an unforeseen complication, Lawson is fired and virtually banned from practicing in New York City. His fiancée leaves him; he goes broke and spirals into a deep depression. But his luck changes — sort of — when his brother (Paulo Costanzo) drags him to a party at a palatial home in the Hamptons, where he chances to save a young woman suffering from a possible drug overdose. After a series of misadventures, Lawson is reluctantly enlisted to become the area’s “concierge doctor,” a private physician to the rich and famous. Always on call, his tasks range from deflating the breasts of a socialite who has undergone a botched plastic surgery to extracting a blood clot from a teenager injured after crashing one of his father’s Ferraris.
“Hank both resents the rich and is forced to live in their world, at their behest,” Feuerstein said of his character. “I love that the show deals with the desire for status and privilege, because … I’d be lying if I said I didn’t subscribe to some of those values myself. I try to think that money and status don’t matter, but when I’m on set and I see my boss from the network, for example, it’s hard to forget that talking to her might be somewhat more significant than speaking with someone else.”
The financial issues tie in to his own family’s experience of traversing the Jewish Diaspora to the American dream. Feuerstein’s Eastern European grandparents brought up six children in an Orthodox home above their shoe store on the Lower East Side; his father and three uncles attended Harvard Law School.
Feuerstein grew up on the Upper East Side, where his observant parents considered sending him to the Ramaz yeshiva, but instead enrolled him at the prestigious Dalton School. “It was part of the cultural matriculation of American Jews,” the actor said of that decision. “The goal for Jews of their generation was to move from the Bronx or Lower East Side to Manhattan, where you engaged in social competition so your children could get on ‘the track’— attending the right schools in order to get into a good college, a great law school and eventually a job at a great firm.”
“My trajectory with regard to awareness of status went from zero to 60 when I left P.S. 158 to attend Dalton, where my classmates were the children of some of the most famous and wealthy people in the country,” he continued. “So for a birthday party, I was going to Diana Ross’ estate in Bedford, Conn., and for a bar mitzvah, to the Waldorf Hotel, where the Harlem Globetrotters would be playing in the ballroom. And of course I would be going off to someone’s estate in the Hamptons and really seeing how the other half lived. My family didn’t have that kind of money, but the Hamptons offered a glimpse.”
The vast beach homes, where personal chefs grilled lunch and windows looked out on the pristine dunes and isolated beaches, made Feuerstein feel as if he were in some kind of Architectural Digest paradise. The experience “was like Martha Stewart meets Woody Allen,” he said, referencing the romantic beach montages of Allen and Diane Keaton in “Annie Hall.”
While Feuerstein’s old pre-law classmates may have their own homes in the Hamptons, the Princeton graduate chose a less stable path when he veered off “the track” to pursue acting as an undergraduate. As to why he attended his first auditions, he said, “I knew I was somewhat extroverted, and I liked attention.” But acting soon became a passion, and Feuerstein went on to study theater on his Fulbright in London and to embark upon a stage career before moving to Hollywood, where he found that “getting a Fulbright doesn’t mean diddly when you’re sitting in front of a director at an audition.”
Nevertheless, he worked steadily, landing roles in films such as “What Women Want,” “In Her Shoes,” and in Ed Zwick’s “Defiance” last year; recurring roles in television shows such as “The West Wing” and, in between, earning stellar reviews for his portrayals of complex characters in plays such as “Turnaround” and Neil LaBute’s “Some Girl(s)” at the Geffen Playhouse last year. His own starring vehicles, including the neurosurgery show “3 Lbs.” for CBS in 2007, proved less successful. “Here I am in ‘the biz’ and I get these shows and they tank, or they don’t all end up being what they might’ve been, but I just keep on going,” he said.
Getting cast in “Royal Pains” proved arduous. Feuerstein had been a friend of the show’s creator, Andrew Lenchewski, since Lenchewski’s Jewish father, an oral surgeon, pulled Feuerstein’s wisdom teeth in 1997 and suggested Mark meet his son, the screenwriter. Feuerstein promptly invited the younger Lenchewski to his annual break-the-fast at his Santa Monica apartment, and the two artists stayed in touch. When Feuerstein heard that his old friend’s show, “Royal Pains,” had been picked up by USA, he called Lenchewski, and, “with a typical moxie belying my deep desire,” congratulated him on the show and declared that he himself would be starring in it.
“I vividly remember listening to that message and laughing,” Lenchewski said in an e-mail. “But the truth is, I was way ahead of [Mark]. I knew the key to casting the part was finding someone who could play both the drama of the medicine and the comedy of the relationships. And I knew we’d get both in spades from ‘Firestone’ (he and I take liberties in Americanizing each other’s super-Jewish surnames). I lobbied for him a lot…. The guy is brilliant.”
Indeed, USA agreed to test Feuerstein for the role — which he describes as “beshert,” but they initially turned him down, stating they preferred a “Matthew Perry” type.
When asked, Feuerstein concedes that his persona could have been perceived as too specifically Jewish for the part, though his character, to date, has not been defined in terms of ethnicity. Feuerstein is curious to see whether the writers will address Lawson’s heritage in an upcoming episode, when a socialite character, Mrs. Newberg, holds a “Bark Mitzvah” for her pedigreed pooch.
As he prepared to dress for the recent shoot — and to be schlepped off in a minivan — the actor reflected again on how “Royal Pains” explores his own conflicting feelings about money. On the one hand, he said, the idea of a “concierge doctor” is elitist. On the other, he can see himself hiring one if he were outlandishly wealthy. “Why wouldn’t I want a guy I can call every time one of my kids has an infection, a fever, a bump,” he said. “It would be, ‘Hey doc, hang up your cell phone, you’re talking to me now, and I’m going to take an hour to describe every symptom and then you’re going to come to my house.’ That would be a dream for any neurotic Jewish parent.”
For more information and a full schedule for “Royal Pains,” visit usanetwork.com.
Feuerstein Feels the ‘Royal Pain’in USA’s New Dramedy Read More »
Israeli Films Ponder Human Cost of Bombings
Suicide bombings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are daunting topics, even for risk-taking young Israeli directors, but two feature movies on the subject screening at the Israel Film Festival are remarkable for their unexpected sensitivity and humanity.
Although each picture was made independent of the other, they complement each other perfectly.
“For My Father,” seen mainly from the bomber’s perspective, shows the road leading up to the inhuman deed. By contrast, “Seven Minutes in Heaven” explores the long-range impact of a bus bombing on a survivor.
In “For My Father,” also titled “Weekend in Tel Aviv,” Tarek, a young West Bank Palestinian, faces a dilemma that might be humorous if the circumstances weren’t so deadly.
Dispatched to blow himself up in Tel Aviv’s bustling Carmel outdoor marketplace at the height of Friday’s pre-Shabbat shopping rush, Tarek discovers at the climactic moment that the switch to set off his explosive belt isn’t working.
He finds a small electric store, run by an eccentric and embittered Romanian Jew, who regrets that it’ll take until Sunday morning to order the new part.
Tarek, who passes himself off as an Arab worker at a nearby construction project, now has time on his hands. He patches the roof for Mr. Katz, the Romanian storeowner, and in return gets dinner, a place to sleep, and insight into the troubles and sorrows of his host.
The Palestinian is handsome, in a brooding sort of way, and was a rising soccer star on the Nazareth Maccabi team.
Next to Katz’s store is a small soft-drink and coffee kiosk, run by Keren, a young Jewish woman who has been banished by her observant father for her unseemly ways and short skirts.
When some neighborhood Orthodox bullies attack Keren, Tarek comes to her defense, and the Arab man and the Jewish woman fall almost instantly in love.
In one of the movie’s odd funny-tragic interludes, Keren invites Tarek to a night beach party and urges him to join her for a dip in the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, Tarek is still wearing his malfunctioning suicide belt and awkwardly declines the invitation.
To reveal more would be a spoiler, but the film by Dror Zahavi proves again with what humanity Israeli filmmakers are willing and able to portray even so deadly an enemy as a suicide bomber.
“For My Father,” which won the audience award at last year’s Moscow International Film Festival, is also noteworthy for its impressive acting by Jaffa native Shredi Jabarin as Tarek, Hili Yalon as Keren and Shlomo Vishinsky as Mr. Katz.
“Seven Minutes in Heaven” is the more complex of the two movies. The film opens during Purim festivities, exactly one year after a deadly Jerusalem bus bombing.
Galia, a woman with a luminous face and a sabra’s way of saying exactly what she thinks, is one of the few survivors. However, third-degree burns make her back look “as if [she] slept on a hot barbeque griddle.”
Even more painful are her emotional scars, for she blames herself for the death of her fiancé Oren, who took the same bus only to apologize to Galia after a lovers’ spat.
She feels a desperate need to find out what exactly happened at the time and place of the bombing, especially after an anonymous package returns to her a cherished necklace she wore that day.
As she searches for the name of the medic who carried her out of the burning bus, she encounters a man who is a member of the Orthodox ZAKA team that is usually first on the scene after a terrorist attack, tending to the wounded and collecting body parts.
He doesn’t know the name of the medic either, but tells Galia that after she was rescued from the bus, she was clinically dead for seven minutes. After death, he adds, the soul rises to heaven, but if it is still incomplete, God gives it a chance to return to earth, so that the soul may change its future destiny at the moment it is reunited with the body.
Galia dismisses such mysticism as religious nonsense, but just about then she encounters Boaz, a young man who seems to show up whenever she needs some help.
It would be unfair to reveal the rest of the story, but don’t expect a Hollywood ending.
The movie has won a number of prizes at international film festivals and is the more impressive as the debut feature for director Omri Givon and the first lead role for Reymonde Amsalem as Galia.
“For My Father” and “Seven Minutes in Heaven” give added proof that the quality level of Israeli movies continues to rise year after year.
Both films will be shown repeatedly during the June 4-18 Israel Film Festival at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills and Laemmle’s Fallbrook 7 in West Hills.
For dates, times and locations, visit Israeli Films Ponder Human Cost of Bombings Read More »
Calendar Picks and Clicks for June 6–12, 2009
SAT | JUNE 6
(POETRY + MUSIC)
“Sisters Singing: Blessings, Prayers, Art, Songs, Poetry and Sacred Stories by Women” is a collaborative effort by 135 women of different spiritualities. The 400-page anthology is filled with essays, songs, poetry and photography by Irish, Hispanic, Armenian, Native American and Jewish artists. Jewish author-poet Deena Metzger and Deborah Edler Brown, along with several other contributors will perform at a joint poetry and music concert to celebrate the publication of the book. Sat. 7:30 p.m. $15. Unitarian Universalist Church, 12355 Moorpark St., Studio City. (310) 815-1060. ” title=”www.westsidejcc.org” target=”_blank”>www.westsidejcc.org.
SUN | JUNE 7
</b><br />
The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony and the KindredSPIRITS Interfaith Gospel Choir will be among the performers at an interfaith humanitarian aid concert in honor of Heifer International, a global nonprofit working to end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and sustainability. The concert will also feature Cantors Ilan Davidson (tenor), Ron LiPaz (baritone) and Ilysia Pierce (soprano) as well as special guest celebrities as presenters. Sun. 7 p.m. $54-$180. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles. (424) 785-1563. <a href=)
” title=”www.kindredspiritslive.org” target=”_blank”>www.kindredspiritslive.org.
(CONCERT)
Hershey Felder, a pianist, actor, playwright, composer and producer who earned acclaim for his production of “George Gershwin Alone,” will perform his new showcase, “Hershey Felder in Concert: The American Songbook Sing-Along,” at a concert hosted by Vista Del Mar Child & Family Services. All proceeds from the one-night show, which also marks Vista Del Mar’s 100th anniversary, will benefit abused, neglected and at-risk children who rely on the agency’s welfare and mental health services. Sun. 5 p.m. (buffet dinner), 7 p.m. (show). $250, $500. Saban Theatre (formerly the Wilshire Theatre), 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. (310) 836-1223, ext. 274. ” title=”www.jewishworldwatch.org” target=”_blank”>www.jewishworldwatch.org.
MON | JUNE 8
(ART)
“Roy Lichtenstein/Jasper Johns: Prints” is an exhibition of some of the two American masters’ graphics from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s. Well-known works of art, such as Johns’ triptych, “Usuyuki,” and Lichtenstein’s “At the Beach,” from his Surrealist Series, will be on display at the gallery. Gallery hours: Mon.-Sat., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Exhibition runs through June 29. Leslie Sacks Fine Art, 11640 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood. (310) 820-9448. ” border = 0 vspace = ‘8’ hspace = ‘8’ align = ‘left’>(CONCERT)
Rock artist Ivri Lider was voted 2005’s “Male Singer of the Year” by Israeli radio stations, and his songs have consistently topped the Israeli singles chart since he broke into its music scene in the late 1990s. The singer-songwriter is the headliner for a concert celebrating Tel Aviv’s centennial, also featuring an after party with DJ Asaf Amdursky. 21 and over. Tue. 8 p.m. $45 (general), $75 (VIP). Avalon, 1735 Vine St., Hollywood. (323) 309-3711. 
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
WED | JUNE 10
</b><br />
Humanitarian, yogi and mystic Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is one of the most influential spiritual leaders in the world. Vasudev spoke to an audience of 500,000 in India in April and will be giving a rare nondenominational talk in Los Angeles, “Is There a Spirituality We All Can Share?” Following the lecture, Rabbi David Wolpe will conduct a Q-and-A session with Vasudev and author Cheryl Simone will sign her book, “Midnights With the Mystic,” about her late-night discussions with the guru. Wed. 7:30 p.m. Free. Sinai Temple, 10400 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. R.S.V.P. required, (310) 481-3243. {encode=”dgreenbaum@sinaitemple.org” title=”dgreenbaum@sinaitemple.org”}.</p>
<p><b>(AUTHOR TALK)</b><br />
Gina Nahai, a bestselling author, full-time lecturer at USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program and Jewish Journal columnist, will talk about her novels and the writing process at an author talk at Westwood Branch Library. The Iranian-born novelist wrote “Caspian Rain,” “Sunday’s Silence,” “Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith” and “Cry of the Peacock.” Wed. 6:30-7:45 p.m. Free. Westwood Branch Library, 1246 Glendon Ave., Los Angeles. (310) 474-1739. <a href=)
” title=”www.lapl.org” target=”_blank”>www.lapl.org.
(GALA)
Chabad of the Conejo is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a grand gala banquet, “Gateway to the Future.” At the gala, Chabad will be paying tribute to three honorees — Renee Overton, Mark and Renee Horwitz and Hal and Judy Standel — as well as memorializing the late Evelyn Overton. The program will be followed by a concert featuring Broadway singer Jordan Bennett and comedian Mark Schiff. Wed. 5:30 p.m. $270. Warner Center Marriott Hotel, 21850 Oxnard St., Woodland Hills. (818) 991-0991. ” title=”www.uprightcabaret.com/events” target=”_blank”>www.uprightcabaret.com/events.
(THEATER)
In “Harriett Levy: Back by Popular Demand” Todd Waddington plays the titular role of Harriett, an actress, chanteuse, priestess, lounge lizard and metaphysical life coach whose life in the limelight began when Cecil B. DeMille cast her as a stuntwoman in “The Ten Commandments.” The vaudeville-style show takes inspiration from Charles Busch, Charles Pierce, Belle Barth and Dame Edna. Thu. 8 p.m. Through July 19. $19. Hudson Guild Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 960-7792. ” title=”www.oscilloscope.net/unmistakenchild” target=”_blank”>www.oscilloscope.net/unmistakenchild.
Calendar Picks and Clicks for June 6–12, 2009 Read More »
College Uncertainty Marks Class of 2009
After getting wait-listed at her top three colleges, Liora Simozar seemed poised to go to UCLA. She had already sent in her acceptance when, out of the blue, she heard back from Harvard.
“It was an emotional roller coaster to some extent,” said Simozar, 18, a senior at Beverly Hills High School. “Most students on the wait list assume the worst and start to feel good about the school they’ve committed to. This was definitely a surprise.”
The now Harvard-bound graduate, who is vice president of her class, said there were a lot of surprises during this year’s college admissions season. Some students were turned away from their safety schools while others gained admission to top-tier universities they never expected to get into. Many more students this year were placed on the dreaded wait lists, as colleges proceeded with caution when gauging the number of kids who would accept offers for coveted spots.
As the largest pool of high school seniors on record — about 3.2 million by national estimates — prepares to matriculate in the fall, students and school counselors say this year was marked, more than anything else, by uncertainty.
“There were some really astonishing results this year,” said Jeannie Borin, founder and president of Los Angeles-based college consulting firm College Connections.
Competition crackled as more applicants than ever vied for seats at top schools, causing scores of qualified applicants to be turned away. But at the same time, the languid economy drew more students to state schools, as cost-conscious families sought ways to save on tuition. The shift had colleges building up their wait lists as officials tried to predict who would commit to their incoming freshman class.
“The economy definitely had an effect on the way colleges were responding,” said Joe Blassberg, college guidance director at Milken Community High School. “A lot of colleges were wait-listing more students so they would have a buffer, but there wasn’t much wait list activation so they obviously made their yield.”
Even if students got into the schools of their choice this year, many families had to narrow their prospects as the economy plunged and college savings funds were wiped out.
Ten to 15 percent of families at Milken had to rethink their college options because they could no longer afford the high cost of tuition at private universities, Blassberg said. “Some families are having to accept the fact that they need to go to a college that is more cost-effective for them,” he said. “That has been a bigger point of consideration than it has been in years past, because people might have less money to invest in education this year.”
As a result, more students will be heading to the UC system than in previous years, he said.
UCLA is seeing the effects of the recession in several ways, said Ronald Johnson, director of the school’s financial aid office. Appeals from students who were initially turned away are up 20 percent this year, he said, as families who have lost their jobs or their savings look toward the state school system as the more affordable — and perhaps the only — alternative.
The school’s chancellor also allotted $250,000 in grant money this year to help struggling students.
“There could be considerable financial stressors on students and families in the coming year,” Johnson said, especially as the Cal Grant program faces elimination under the governor’s current state budget proposal. “We estimate that we’ll see a lot of hardship.”
More graduating seniors this year are opting to delay the burden of college tuition by enrolling in community colleges for the first two years, said Borin, the college consultant. Many UC schools have a Transfer Admission Guarantee (TAG) program that offers guaranteed admission to students who complete a set of core courses at a community college.
But most students were already aware of the “financial realities” of college when they applied, said Celeste Morgan, director of college guidance at New Community Jewish High School. Students who created balanced college lists avoided finding themselves in a bind when the admission letters started coming in, she said.
“Most students applied to a variety of schools that fit their particular family’s circumstances, whether it was public schools versus private schools, or in-state versus out-of-state,” Morgan said.
Simozar, the Beverly Hills High School senior, said most of her friends got into schools that were “a good fit” and were not disappointed. The future mathematics major said students are excited about their options and ready to embark on a vast array of educational journeys.
“It’s amazing to see how spread out we’re going to be, after being so close for the last four years,” she said.
College Uncertainty Marks Class of 2009 Read More »