Arts & Culture

Graphic doc on Oct. 7

screenshot - Burned-out vehicles line the roads where Nova Festival attendees sought to escape before being ambushed by armed terrorists who had invaded from Gaza

Caution: Story contains graphic descriptions. Toronto filmmaker Igal Hecht has made his full-length documentary of the mass atrocities along Israel’s highways on Oct. 7, 2023, free to stream online.  The Killing Roads is a grotesque film – and that is…

Festival offers diverse views

screenshot - The Victoria International Jewish Film Festival opens Oct. 10 with Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls, about the Jewish side of Woody Guthrie’s life and music

The 12th annual Victoria International Jewish Film Festival runs Oct. 10 to 15 at the Vic Theatre, with some content available online. This year’s festival offers eight feature-length films, a curated international shorts program, live music and a competition for…

Cedar Woman opens series

photo - Tasha Faye Evans’ Cedar Woman opens the Dance Centre’s 2026-27 Global Dance Connections series Oct. 1-3

The Dance Centre launches its 2026/27 Global Dance Connections series Oct. 1-3 with Cedar Woman by dance and theatre artist Tasha Faye Evans. A prayer in a long line of prayers, Cedar Woman is a Coast Salish story of ancestral…

Treasure trove of storytelling

photo - Gillian Armitage

In the Beginning, the solo show of Gillian Armitage, now at the Zack Gallery, demonstrates the range of the artist’s perception and moods: from striking black-and-white prints to mischievous pastel renderings, both inspired by Giotto, a renown 14th-century Italian artist…

Chutzpah! Festival coming

photo - This year’s Chutzpah! Festival opens Nov. 3 with an evening of homegrown talent, including a Yiddish-inspired theatre performance by Angelic Goldsky

The Chutzpah! Festival returns for its 26th edition with a lineup of performances Nov. 3-15 that showcases music, theatre, comedy, dance and storytelling presentations by local, national and international artists through a multicultural Jewish lens. In addition to performances, there…

Tzimmes celebrates 40

photo - Tzimmes's 40th anniversary cake

This summer, Tzimmes celebrated its 40th anniversary. Band members from far and wide, old and new, gathered in Vancouver on Aug. 17 to mark the occasion with food, laughter and, of course, a little music. The Vancouver ensemble is known…

New Vancouver Opera season

photo - La Traviata, which concludes Vancouver Opera’s 2026/27 season, tells of Violetta, a courtesan desired, elevated and, ultimately, undone by the society that fixes its gaze on her

Vancouver Opera’s 2026-2027 season features Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, with Jewish community member Idan Cohen directing the latter. The season opens with Tosca, a co-production performed under the baton of…

Filming family history

screenshot - Rawa Mazowiecka: My Mother’s Hometown in Poland is a film made by Haya Newman about her maternal family’s Holocaust experiences

Prior to the Holocaust, 3.3 million Jews were living in Poland. By 1945, only 300,000 to 350,000 had survived. Haya Newman’s parents were among the survivors, and she has documented their stories in film. In 2014, she completed Wolbrom: My…

The Rocky of talk-show hosts

photo - Ieden Wall has had to have grit to realize his dream of hosting a national TV talk show

On a late summer afternoon in Toronto, with thin light slipping through the blinds, Ieden Wall sits alone in his home editing suite, surrounded by scattered notes and the hum of aging equipment. He looks exhausted – the kind of…

An inspiring effort at revival 

image - Parchment journal cover

The revival of a printed publication is a rare occasion. The folks behind the Spring 2026 Parchment: Contemporary Canadian Jewish Writing should be commended. It is the first issue of the journal to be published since 2014. The hope is…