Let’s face it: an overwhelming number of the modern world’s greatest achievements have come from the United States. Behind all of those accomplishments are human beings, all of whom, presumably, have mothers and fathers. So I ask: If this is true, why are American parents — more specifically, American mothers — so insecure about the…
Having grown up in suburban Philadelphia, born to a Yiddish-speaking mother, Alison Klayman is a surprising conduit for China’s most famous dissident artist. In between many jobs, including writing for this newspaper (and interviewing the Chinese about their knowledge of Jews and Judaism before the influx of visitors for the 2010 Olympics, for JTA), she…
While so many countries are shunning Israel these days, China is going against the grain by officially and ceremoniously recognizing its ties with the Jewish State. Ynet reported that on Wednesday, the Israeli ambassador to China, Amos Nadai, was granted honorary citizenship to Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan province in western China. This is…
If Anne Frank hadn’t died of typhus at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March, 1945, she might have turned a grand 82 years old on June 12. It’s useless to try and imagine what she — or the world — would have been like had she survived. What is certain, however, is that Frank is…
It’s a staple of Hollywood and European cinema, and now a Holocaust movie is being shot in China. Xinhua, the country’s official news agency, reports that production will soon begin on “The Melanie Violin,” a drama about a Jewish musician who flees Europe for Shanghai and falls for a local love interest. The film will…
Greek clerics may blame us for wrecking their country’s economy, as the Forward reported last week. But in China, Jews are hailed as “very smart, very clever, and very good at business,” according to Newsweek. “The apparent affection for Jewishness has led to a surprising trend in publishing over the last few years: books purporting…
“Casino Jack,” the Jack Abramoff biopic starring Kevin Spacey, opens today. Read our review from the Toronto International Film Festival here. Joshua Furst bugs out at an Icelandic adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” featuring music by Nick Cave. Jo-Ann Mort reads through two of the Arab world’s pre-eminent poets. Gordon Haber investigates one of…
With stadium seating and the scent of fresh popcorn in the air, the November 21 screening of “A Jewish Girl in Shanghai” could have taken place in any shopping mall cinema in the world. But there was nothing ordinary about the film itself, which is China’s first homegrown Jewish movie, and an animated one at…
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