By Jack Forman San Diego Jewish World Joel Fendelman is a young independent film producer and director whose feature-length documentary film Needle Through Brick — about the development of Kung Fu —  recently won the Silver Palm award at the Mexico International Film Festival. In making David, his first feature

By Michael Fox Special To The Observer The late Avery Brundage, the autocratic president of the International Olympic Committee from 1952 to 72, believed that sports and politics should be kept separate. At least that was one argument that supporters used to defend his decision to resume the 1972 Munich

By Michael Fox Special To The Observer The pioneering Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem was born in a shtetl in the middle of the 19th century. Even today his name is synonymous with the Old Country and a vanished way of life. Blame Fiddler on the Roof, which was adapted from

By Sheldon Kirshner The Canadian Jewish News The screwball comedy, a staple of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood, has finally reached the shores of Israel. Yohanan Weller’s Salsa Tel Aviv is frothy and light-hearted. It delves into a serious issue: the plight of illegal foreign workers in Israel. The foreigners in

Film Review By Schuyler Velasco, Forward Can a murderer be someone with no literal blood on his hands? Someone who never gave a direct order to kill? In the case of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi leader who organized the transport of millions of Jews to death camps during the Holocaust,

  By Michael Fox Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer Like a native of Los Angeles, Dani Menkin effortlessly conducts a phone interview from his car without missing a beat, or his exit. The energetic filmmaker isn’t a native, though he divides his time between Southern California and his native

  Film Review By Tom Tugend, Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles Israel’s The Matchmaker kicks off the 12th Dayton Jewish International Film Festival, on April 24. The opening night film has garnered two Ophirs — Israel’s equivalent of the Oscars — for best actor and best actress. But don’t

By Jennie Szink, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer When Ira Segalewitz attended a Yiddish conference last spring, he didn’t expect to be enveloped by songs about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed more than 145 workers in New York in 1911. He didn’t think he’d be so connected

One of the great actors of the last century said that to play Shylock in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice gave him joy; it was one of the highest points of his career. Shylock, the hated Jewish moneylender, demands the contractual payment of a pound of flesh from Antonio when

By Ted Merwin, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer He’s been called the epitome of evil, a Dracula-like character who battens on human flesh. Yet others see him as a victim of horrible injustice, deserving of compassion and pity. Whether you love him or hate him, the Jewish moneylender at