Ed Rampell
By Ed Rampell
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The Schmooze Tevye Goes West
When remembering the waves of Jewish immigration to early 20th-century America we usually conjure up images of Ellis Island and the Lower East Side. However, thanks to the Galveston Plan, some Eastern European Jews found themselves far from the Statue of Liberty, way down yonder in the land of cotton. Haskell Harelik may have landed…
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The Schmooze Q&A: Actor Alan Mandell on Samuel Beckett
Actor Alan Mandell has portrayed Shakespeare’s Shylock, Prospero and Lear, and performed everywhere from Dublin’s Abbey Theatre to Broadway to the silver screen. One of his most notable recent roles was Rabbi Marshak in the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man.” Mandell is currently playing Estragon in “Waiting for Godot” at LA’s Mark Taper Forum. He…
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The Schmooze Monday Music: LA Jewish Symphony at 18
The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony is celebrating its 18th anniversary this year with a series of live performances, beginning with a March 31 concert at Valley Beth Shalom, in the San Fernando Valley. The “Istoria Judia — La Convivencia Musical” concert concentrated on Morocco’s Sephardic tradition and commemorated the 1492 expulsion of Jews from Spain….
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Books Q&A: Oliver Stone on Israel, Palestine and Newt Gingrich
Filmmaker Oliver Stone has been keeping busy. In research for his forthcoming Showtime documentary series, “The Untold History of the United States,” which re-examines crucial events in American history, Stone conducted a seven hour interview with Tariq Ali, the Pakistani-born activist and intellectual who inspired the Rolling Stones song “Street Fighting Man.” That dialog formed…
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The Schmooze Hadassah, a Settler and a Suicide Bomber
Israel arguably has two indigenous peoples, and as Shakespeare wrote, “aye, there’s the rub.” This is the dilemma another bard, Stephanie Liss, explores in “On Holy Ground,” two one act plays that premiered November 18 at the The Met Theatre in Los Angeles. The first, “Daughter of My People,” stars Salome Jens as Henrietta Szold,…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: What Makes Sarko Run?
Film Still Courtesy of Music Box Films The bold French movie “The Conquest” is a rarity — a feature film with the guts to criticize the sitting head of government of its own country. Britain’s “The Queen” dared critique both Prime Minister Tony Blair and Queen Elizabeth II in 2006 while both were still in…
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The Schmooze ‘Rescuers’ Doc Ponders ‘Mystery of Goodness’
Film still courtesy of Menemsha Films The alternately heartwarming and heart wrenching documentary “The Rescuers,” about heroic non-Jews who saved Jews during the Holocaust, focuses on the role diplomats did — and can — play in saving victims of genocide. The film, screening October 27 at the Museum of Tolerance in New York and October…
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The Schmooze Nazis in Skokie, and On Stage
Peter Van Norden, Adam Korson, Corryn Cummins and Jason Weiss in ‘God of Isaac.’ Photo by Michael Lamont. “The God of Isaac” — James Sherman’s semi-autobiographical dramedy about the 1977 American Nazi threat to Skokie, Illinois, and how it inspired an Americanized Jew to return to his roots — starts promisingly enough. In an opening…
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