Robert Katz, an Italy-based American author, journalist and screenwriter who wrote extensively about the World War II fate of Jews in Rome, has died.
His wife told The Associated Press that Katz, who had lived in Tuscany for many years, died Thursday of complications from cancer surgery. He was 77.
Katz wrote extensively about 20th century Italian history. His most famous book was “Death in Rome,” published in 1967. It detailed the Nazi massacre of 335 men and boys, many of them Jews, at the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome in retaliation for an Italian partisan attack the day before.
The book suggested that Pope Pius XII had known about the planned mass execution but had not intervened to stop it. It was turned into a 1973 movie, “Massacre in Rome,” starring Richard Burton and Marcello Mastroianni.
According to Katz’s website, “The book aroused international religious and political controversy; the film brought the controversy to court, culminating in a two-year criminal trial. Katz was ultimately convicted and sentenced to fourteen months in prison for defaming the memory of Pope Pius XII. The verdict was overturned on appeal and later the case was dismissed by Italy’s Supreme Court.”
Years later, Katz also wrote about Erich Priebke, a former SS officer who in 1994 was located in Argentina, brought back to Italy, tried and given a life sentence for his role in the massacre.
It is that time of year to once again celebrate Israeli films with the 25th Annual Israeli Film Festival honoring two of my old friends, producer Avi Lerner and actor Richard Dreyfuss who opens off Broadway next month in a two hand play about the great Rabbi and social justice advocate Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel.
Dreyfuss, an important advocate for social justice has been embracing his Jewish roots as along as I have known him, almost 30 years. He has also studied with me in a famous class run by Rabbi Schlomo Schwartz which dates back to the mid 80’s. The class in Chassidut brought in many friends from the film and music industry before classes of this nature were as popular as they are now.
It is no surprise that Dreyfuss would be attracted to Heschel, who among other achievements marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in the 60’s.
A big nod to Israeli Film festival executive director Meir Fenigstein who created the festival and housed it here bringing in some of the most important contemporary Israeli artists. The festival runs through November 4th.
An international aid convoy entered Gaza from Egypt.
The Viva Palestina convoy of nearly 140 vehicles, $5 million in aid and 370 passengers from 30 countries, entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Thursday afternoon. The convoy reportedly was carrying school and medical supplies.
The convoy left more than a month ago from London, travelling by land and sea through France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Syria before reaching Egypt.
Gaza has been under a naval blockade by Israel since Hamas took over the coastal strip in 2007.
Egypt allowed the convoy to pass through its territory and enter Gaza, but excluded 17 convoy members, including former British lawmaker and convoy organizer George Galloway. In January, Galloway was deported from Egypt and declared a persona non grata after attempting to bring a smaller convoy through the country to Gaza.
Several dozen passengers on the Mavi Marmara, on which nine Turkish nationals died May 31 when Israel’s Navy intercepted the ship as it attempted to break the Gaza blockade by sea, were on the Viva Palestina convoy.
“We are absolutely overjoyed to be here and to bring with us the soil from the graves of those who were massacred on the Mavi Marmara, which will be used to plant trees as a memorial to their sacrifice,” said Kevin Ovenden, the convoy director.
Members of the convoy are expected to leave Gaza and return to their homes over the weekend.
An Israeli chess grandmaster is playing 525 ranked chess players simultaneously in Tel Aviv in an effort to beat an Iranian’s world record.
Alik Gershon began playing the concurrent matches on Thursday morning in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in an attempt to break the Guinness simultaneous chess world record set in 2009 by the Iranian grandmaster Morteza Mahjoub. The event is sponsored by the Jewish Agency and the Israel Chess Federation to mark the 20th anniversary of the mass aliyah from the former Soviet Union.
Many of Gershon’s opponents, who are registered and ranked by the Israel Chess Federation, as per the requirements of the Guinness Book of Records, are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Gershon, 30, is a native of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, who immigrated to Israel in 1990.
Public figures are among those watching the matches, which are under the close scrutiny of a judge representing the Guinness Book of Records. To set the world record, Gershon must win at least 80 percent of the games. Mahjoub’s record is 500 games.
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky played a match with Gershon at the beginning of the event.
Gershon began to learn chess at age 2 and by 5 was competing. He became an Israeli youth champion, won the world championship in 1994 for youth up to age 14, and became Israeli champion in 2000.
Marcus is eating a tuna sandwich. Marcus has arrived at LAX. Marcus is bored. Fascinating stuff, right? Wrong. In which case, why are millions of people writing this sort of tosh every single day?
How about this: Marcus is getting a partial lobotomy from a blind surgeon. Marcus is receiving his 350th tattoo. Marcus is parachuting from an Israeli fighter jet whilst dressed as an 18th Century housemaid.
Such is the stuff of facebook status updates, tweets and other cyber musings. Twitter allows you 140 characters to do it and facebook gives you a bit more space. The problem is that people often don’t quite realise exactly what they are broadcasting.
‘Tuna sandwich’ updates are the first issue. Not a problem as such, but it pushes blandness to the limits and tests everyone’s boredom threshold. Whilst I’m thrilled that you’re alive are happily functioning once again after last night’s curry, but I don’t need to know these minor details. Thank you, but no thanks.
Then there are the emotionally-revealing updates, jam-packed with TMI; ‘Ezmerelda is depressed with her life’. Depression deserves love, attention and compassion. But does sharing it with your 1,254 online facebook “friends “ really serve a therapeutic purpose?
Regardless of how you view Marc Zuckerberg, his vision for Facebook has had a massive impact on people’s lives. Although he isn’t portrayed in a sympathetic light in Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant screenplay for The Social Network, Zuckerberg has succeeded in getting more people to connect on a more frequent basis.
The real dilemma which troubles me is thus; how to clear my next one-line broadcast out of my mind. Last week I was floating on my surfboard just off the Santa Monica, almost breathless as the sunset over Malibu, admiring the beautiful reddening sunset hues light up the sky, as the last rays of sun bounced off the sea and caused a few clouds to have a scarlet hue at their base. A flock of pelicans glided above the surface of the water in perfect formation, their long beaks barely skimming the now-turbulent waves before they rose in graceful unison. While this happened, all I could think was “how am I going to condense all of this into a status update?’.
Herein lies the rub. Rather than experiencing life in the moment, many of us are focused on how we are going to share the moment. Like the holidaymaker who spends an entire vacation behind the lens of the video camera rather than being immersed in the moment, we can separate ourselves to the point of abstraction so that all we are completely separated from the moment.
If you’ve ever been stuck in a social situation where you are with another friend, or even a group, and all of them are texting, g-chatting or emailing, it gets fairly tiring pretty quickly. Maybe I need to update my conversational skills or maybe we’re heading into a communications black hole.
Of course there are some positive benefits. Tweeters sending messages from oppressive regimes, giving news about rapidly unfolding natural disasters, or sending warnings to void war-torn trouble spots.
We have to be very careful what we broadcast, and we need to be aware of it. Ultimately it’s all a form of narrative and we are telling a specific story, including some details and omitting others. Tuna sandwich or partial lobotomy, these broadcasts can stay online for a long time and come back to haunt us. The ancient words of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi have become truer than ever: “know these three things and you’ll avoid trouble. Be aware of what’s above you – an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and all of your actions are written in a book”.
Tweet with care.
Marcus recently moved to LA from the rainy isle of Great Britain. He’ll be updating his blog once a fortnight, but if you can’t wait that long to get More Marcus, go to ” title=”www.jconnectla.com” target=”_blank”>www.jconnectla.com. What, you still want more? So offer him your daughter in marriage and then you won’t be able to get rid of him.
A campaign is being launched to help New York rabbis encourage couples to perform screenings for Jewish genetic diseases before pregnancy.
The Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium and the New York Board of Rabbis are launching the Couples Aware campaign Thursday at the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York.
The program, which will run through late February, includes training sessions for rabbis at local hospitals. The rabbis will review the basics of genetics with counselors and learn ways to incorporate genetic screening into their premarital counseling sessions.
About one in five Ashkenazi Jews are carriers of at least one of 16 Jewish genetic diseases. Having two carriers of the same disease increases the chances of giving birth to a child affected by it.
“In the rare case that both members of the couple are carriers of the same disease, they can work with a genetic counselor to determine the best way to build a healthy family,” said Randy Glaser, co-chair of the Jewish Genetic Disease Consortium.
A delegation of senior U.S. counterterrorism specialists visited the police command center in Tel Aviv.
The group of deputy chiefs, commanders, captains and senior intelligence analysts from American police departments—on a weeklong visit to Israel through Project Interchange—received an in-depth overview of the challenges that Israeli police encounter in dealing with terrorism.
The Americans met with Shachar Ayalon, commander of the Tel Aviv Regional Police, and Ilan Mor, its district commander, and had a guided tour of the central headquarters.
The program showcases Israeli technological and operational advances in counterterrorism tactics, as well as provides the U.S. specialists an opportunity to exchange information with their Israeli counterparts on best practices. Discussions also have included countering the financing of terror operations and organizations, cutting-edge counterterrorism technologies and airport security.
Project Interchange had a similar program in September for European counterterrorism experts.
The U.S. officials on the trip, which ends Oct. 23, are from New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Montgomery County, Md.
The U.S. Defense Department has notified Congress that it is planning to sell $60 billion in advanced military equipment to Saudi Arabia.
Israel does not object to the sale, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Alexander Vershbow, told reporters during a briefing Wednesday in Washington.
Congress has 30 days to review the deal and could block or amend the sale. This is seen as unlikely, despite the fact that a small group of Congress members oppose the sale. Congress will return from a recess in early November following the midterm elections.
U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) opposes the proposed sale.
“It seems to be rewarding a country that hasn’t been particularly helpful to any of our foreign policy objectives and one that doesn’t seem to be well suited to be a military bulwark against Iran,” he told the Washington Post.
The deal includes 84 new F-15 fighter planes, and nearly 200 Apache, Black Hawk and Little Bird helicopters, as well as upgrades for 70 fighter planes. The deal also would include a satellite-guided “smart bomb” system, as well as anti-ship and anti-radar missiles. It will take five to 10 years to complete the deal, according to reports.
Talks between the United States and Saudi Arabia over the arms sale have been ongoing for months.
Israel recently signed a deal to buy 20 U.S. F-35 joint strike fighter jets.
Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary for political military affairs at the State Department, told reporters at the briefing that as part of the process, the U.S. conducts an independent assessment of what the impact would be on Israel’s qualitative military edge.
“And our assessment is that this would not diminish Israel’s qualitative military edge, and therefore we felt comfortable in going forward with the sale,” he said.
The Israeli soldier who ran over American activist Rachel Corrie with a bulldozer in Gaza testified in a Haifa courtroom.
The soldier, who has never been charged or tried in the death of the 23-year-old activist, and whose identity has never been revealed, testified hidden behind a wooden partition, just a few feet from Corrie’s parents.
The civil wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Corrie’s parents against Israel’s Defense Ministry has been ongoing since March.
Corrie was run over and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 as she attempted to prevent a Palestinian home from being demolished along with other members of the International Solidarity Movement. The driver said he did not see her, and her death was ruled an accident by the Israeli military.
