Aleks Paunovic, left, and Ben Ratner in scene from the short film Ganjy, which Ratner hopes one day to develop into a feature. (photo from Ben Ratner) Vancouver Jewish community member Ben Ratner steps back into his acting boots for…
Dr. Peter Gary discusses A 20th Century Passion, which is set to première in Jerusalem Oct. 17, in a documentary-in-the-making by Hilary Pryor and David Malysheff. (screenshot from a20thcenturypassion.org/documentary) For most of his life, Dr. Peter Gary never spoke of…
Isaac Waldman Jewish Public Library librarian Helen Pinsky, left, and master’s student Alisa Lazear, who is working on the library’s audiobooks collection. (photo by Olga Livshin) In past centuries, reading aloud was an integral part of family life. People gathered…
The Swirsky family. Jackie Swirsky has written a children’s book, Be Yourself, which features illustrations by her eldest child, Jacob, and her sister-in-law. (photo from Jackie Swirsky) Maybe it’s because I’m an academic, but I tend to gravitate to categories,…
This two-album anthology was created to celebrate the launch of the Milken Archive’s new website. It features a sample track from each of the archive’s 20 thematic volumes. The Milken Archive of Jewish Music: The American Experience has launched a…
Andrew Nagorski will talk at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre on Nov. 29, as part of the Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival. (photo by Andrew Rudakov) The night before the legendary operation that captured Adolf Eichmann, Isser Harel, the…
For Donniel Hartman, putting God second is a way of maintaining a religious life and faith in God, but without God undermining our responsibility to our fellow human beings. (photo from Donniel Hartman) Donniel Hartman, an Orthodox rabbi and president…
Before you begin reading Curt Leviant’s latest novel, Kafka’s Son (Dzanc Books, 2016), you are confronted with a curious bit of information. There are a dozen quotes from French reviews before the title page. Why? Because the book first appeared…
Books can take you to the most captivating places. Not always happy places, but places worth exploring, places where the people, environment, challenges and culture are different. A place you can have adventures, learn from what has happened to others…
Two quirky books. Both historically based, both written with humor, both dark and light. But there the similarities end. The quiet and quirky Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos is based on letters his parents sent to each other immediately…
