Category Arts & Culture

There are lessons to learn

book cover - Lessons of the Holocaust

“My principal lesson of the Holocaust is … beware of lessons.” With this warning, renowned Canadian Holocaust scholar Michael R. Marrus, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, has written an essential but also essentially frustrating book, claiming that there…

Interpreting Torah with art

photo - Artists Nancy Current, left, and Robin Atlas at Zack Gallery

Artists Nancy Current, left, and Robin Atlas at Zack Gallery. (photo by Linda Lando) Visual Midrash: Plagues and Visions, which opened at Zack Gallery on April 7, features the work of Seattleites Robin Atlas and Nancy Current, the only West…

Vilna, the place, its people

image - “Soutine Street” by Samuel Bak is the cover of Vilna My Vilna

It is a master storyteller who can make you feel like you’ve met someone you never knew, visited a city to which you’ve never been, make you long for a people, place and culture you’ve never experienced but from a…

Love, family, tradition

The 23 authors in editor Liz Pearl’s latest collection of essays – Living Legacies: A Collection of Narratives by Contemporary Canadian Jewish Women, Vol. 5 (PK Press, 2015) – come from a range of backgrounds. They work in fields as…

Making healthy eating cool

photo - Adam Segal at Indigo Richmond Hill in Ontario last fall

Adam Segal at Indigo Richmond Hill in Ontario last fall. (photo from adammichaelsegal.com) Every parent knows how difficult it can be to cajole their children to eat their vegetables. Author Adam Michael Segal has come up with a tool he…

Revenge story with humor

book cover - King of Yiddish , cropped

Before you get to the fifth page of text, it will become apparent that you haven’t yet encountered a period. Don’t be put off by that. Curt Leviant’s King of Yiddish (Livingston Press, 2015) is a page-turner. It is a…

From nonsense, knowledge

image - To help readers remember what they learn, Hilarious Hebrew uses silly sentences and illustrations

To help readers remember what they learn, Hilarious Hebrew uses silly sentences and illustrations. (all images from Hilarious Hebrew) “The poor monkey has a cough.” “If you’re feeling sleepy, let the lights dim, yawn and let your imagination run free.”…

Life legacies in writing

“I am now face to face with dying, but I am not finished with living,” writes Oliver Sacks as the dedication to Gratitude (Knopf Canada, 2015), a collection of four essays that were written in the two years preceding his…

A loveless family saga

book cover - The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

A powerful family saga, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem (Thomas Dunne Books, 2016) by Sarit Yishai-Levi is brutally honest. It starts with the narrator, Gabriela, talking about her childhood in 1950s Jerusalem. Her relationship with her mother, Luna, is strained…

Secrets from best chefs

book cover - Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes

Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek work together often. Instalments of their Made Easy cookbook series have been featured in the Jewish Independent, with positive reviews. And now, the pair have co-authored Everyday Secret Restaurant Recipes (ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications, 2015). Here are…