Arts & Culture
NYT bestselling author’s history of NY dept. store grande dames
By Marshall Weiss, The Observer Among the extinct department stores of Manhattan, a mystique surrounds the names of a few: Bonwit Teller, Lord & Taylor, Henri Bendel. Bonwit Teller, established in 1895, went bankrupt in 2000. It closed that year. Lord & Taylor filed for bankruptcy in 2020. When it
From refugee to publishing world giant
By Talia Doninger, Special to The Dayton Jewish Observer Lolita set the literary world of 1955 on fire. Controversial, provocative, and polarizing, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel was rejected by multiple publishers before George Weidenfeld took a chance on it. Critics called it obscene, bookstores hesitated to display it. But for Weidenfeld,
14-year-old Shoah victim’s diary inspires world premiere musical at Cincy Playhouse
By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer In 2006, Yad Vashem published a diary in which 14-year-old Rutka Laskier, a Polish Jew, wrote about her life for four months in 1943, until her deportation and murder in Auschwitz. A non-Jewish friend of Rutka had safeguarded the diary for six decades.
Readings for new play about Daytonian who survived Holocaust as a partisan
The public is invited to attend three readings of a new play, Anschel, by Michael London, based on the book Anschel’s Story by Renate Frydman. The Dayton Holocaust Resource Center’s founder and director, Frydman published the book in 2017. It’s her late husband’s story of survival in Nazi-occupied Poland. Told
Look at Us celebrates our Jewish artists & artisans
By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer In a talk at Temple Israel nearly 30 years ago, celebrated local artist Ray Must made a point that was important to him: “I am a Jew who is an artist, not a ‘Jewish artist.’ My work is directed to wider audiences and
D.C.’s Folger Shakespeare Library to open Stuart & Mimi Rose exhibition hall with works from couple’s rare book collection
It’s fitting that the first special exhibition in the Folger Shakespeare Library’s new Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall is drawn entirely from the Dayton couple’s own exceptional collection. After a four-year renovation, the Folger reopens Friday, June 21 with the new exhibit, Imprints in Time,
The Irish & the Jewish: natural allies
Book Review By Martin Gottlieb, Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer In mid 20th-century Chicago, there was a shoe store chain called O’Connor and Goldberg. Adult Jews thought that was so funny: an only-in-America story. Younger Jews didn’t really see anything noteworthy about the name until their elders explained. Now
Gene Wilder doc salutes comedy legend
By Stephen Silver, JTA When Mel Brooks was filming The Producers, he recalled an executive approaching him and saying, “The curly-haired guy—he’s funny looking. Fire him.” Brooks said he would fire the actor, but never intended to actually do it. And when The Producers came out, it became a classic
Doc unspools storied life of Jewish outsider artist, Nuremberg trials guard Nathan Hilu
By Linda Buchwald, New York Jewish Week In the documentary Nathan-ism, Jewish artist Nathan Hilu is hardly ever without a Sharpie or crayon in his hand, drawing something from his memories. Hilu was a Lower East Side native who, as a U.S. soldier at 19, was assigned to guard Nazi
The true story of a 6-year-old Jewish boy who was baptized, kidnapped, and raised by the Pope
By PJ Grisar, Forward Enough time has passed, the Vatican decided in 2019, to examine the record of Pope Pius. The church unsealed papal archives long sought after by historians, and researchers have begun to paint a damning portrait. Pius XII, the head of the church through World War II,
