The Holocaust documentary \”Shoah\” is being broadcast in Iran. The 1985 documentary by French director Claude Lanzmann was scheduled to be presented this week on a satellite channel and is dubbed in Farsi. Satellites are banned in Iran, but many Iranians have them and therefore could watch the film, which includes survivor testimony.
A state-owned French railway company is trying to clear its tarnished reputation, marked for delivering thousands of Jews into the hands of the Nazis. Guillaume Pepy, president of the SNCF national railway, officially ceded a former industrial train station and patch of muddy rail lines to the northern Paris suburb of Bobigny, so the area can be made into a memorial for the 22,407 Jews who were deported to Nazi concentration camps from there. The gesture is one of many similar efforts recently by the company — and at least one government diplomat — since it has been under increased scrutiny following a bid last year for two multibillion-dollar contracts to build high-speed trains in Florida and California.
The late French author Louis-Ferdinand Celine was cut from a list of personalities to be remembered at an annual ceremony because of his anti-Semitic past. Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand removed Celine from the list of major historical figures to be recognized Jan. 21 following the condemnation of his inclusion. Celine’s talent as a novelist is still recognized here, but his close cooperation with Nazi Germany, including virulent anti-Semitic pamphlets he wrote before and during the war, continue to spark controversy. Last week, Holocaust survivor and Nazi prosecutor Serge Klarsfeld asked French President Nicolas Sarkozy to remove Celine from the national celebration after publicly condemning the decision to honor the author alongside individuals such as the scientist Marie Curie and former President Georges Pompidou.
A French court found that a French documentary about coverage of the controversial death of a Palestinian boy was defamatory and not objective.
Alain Lipietz, a French deputy in the European Parliament whose father and uncle were rounded up and sent to a holding area during the war, won a cash indemnity worth about $77,000 from the SNCF — the railway is appealing the case. More than 1,000 people, both Jews and non-Jews, have filed similar claims since the Lipietz case in Toulouse last summer.
For once, it would appear that Jews, Judaism and Jewish interests are not the target of violence in Paris and in so many cities across France. After a surge in anti-Semitic hostility and incidents in recent years, that comes as something of a surprise. This time, it appears the rioters are burning their own cars and neighborhoods, rather then aiming their anger at the symbols of some outside enemy.
\”Le Grand Role\” has laughter, pathos, in-jokes, heartburn, self-caricature — in other words, it\’s a really, really Jewish film, even though the characters insist on speaking French.
Simone Bitton, a French filmmaker who has made seven other documentaries about the histories and cultures of the Middle East and North Africa, considers herself an \”Arab Jew.\”
Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as the star of the eponymous \”Da Ali G Show,\” is in Hollywood preparing for his headliner turn in an upcoming movie with the felicitous title \”Dinner for Schmucks.\”\n\nIn the role, Cohen/Ali will portray a — well — schmuck, with the gift of ruining the life of anyone who spends a few minutes in his company.\n\nThe film is a remake of Francis Veber\’s 1998 French comedy hit \”Le Diner de Cons\” (The Idiot Game), which introduces a French publisher who hosts a weekly dinner for his friends.\n\n
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