Next July 6, more than 1,000 Lithuanian folk dancers decked out in authentic woven costumes, representing close to 40 dance ensembles, will perform the windmill, the scarf dance and other traditional dances at the XIII Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival, hosted for the first time in Los Angeles.
A new bookshelf, overflowing with volumes, testifies to Gady Levy\’s latest and perhaps most ambitious endeavor: the Celebration of Jewish Books, which begins on Monday and extends through an all-day festival on Sunday. The celebration will offer lectures and signings with 40 authors — including big names, such as Larry King, Michael Chabon, Kirk Douglas and Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) — plus music and dance performances, food and a thousand titles for sale, provided by Borders and the Hebrew-language bookseller Steimatzky.\n
Jews have participated regularly in RenFaire — which recreates with the greatest possible accuracy English life during the Renaissance — and actors like Luskin are now finding greater freedom to express their cultural identity in the roles they play. The main stumbling block to date had been that Jews were exiled from England 300 years before the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The trade mission storyline allows this Ottoman tribe of 35 performers to slip its Jewish characters into the formerly Judenrein shire. In keeping with its historical recreation, Oojahm features a detailed history that includes Jewish-Muslim coexistence and cooperation.
Last Sunday\’s Israel Independence Day Festival at Woodley Park attracted 25,000 people — Israelis and supporters of Israel, and some just out for the fun of it. Here are some of their pictures and stories.
While there\’s no conflict with Mother\’s Day this year, organizers of the April 29 Israel Independence Day Festival at Woodley Park are facing another challenge. The celebration of Israel\’s 59th year falls on the same day as Big Sunday, a citywide Mitzvah Day, as well as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at UCLA.
The \”goal is to use the entire event, not just a seder\” to raise awareness and funds for Darfur, Jewish World Watch Executive Director Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug said.
\”Jews are not cultured people,\” she complains. The other woman disagrees.\n\n\”They are cultured,\” she insists, \”they are just different.\”
Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts takes you to \”funkel town.\” It\’s Art Garfunkel in concert this evening, singing American tunes from his days with Paul Simon, as well as solo pieces from days since.
Noshing on a bagel while shlepping his groceries, the klutz fell on his tush.
The Liberty Film Festival, now in its third year, aims to present and promote the work of conservative filmmakers who, according to the organizers, are ignored, persecuted and otherwise absent from \”Hollywood.\”\n\nI put Hollywood in quotes because its meaning, as the evening at the Luxe Bel Air Hotel wore on, was elusive.
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