CULTURE
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The Jewish Square Mile — Jewish Renaissance
Archaeology carried out before the Barbican was built reportedly showed some empty grave cuts but little evidence of Jewish medieval life. However, as we pieced together charters, tax rolls and maps, the picture became clear: this community was vibrant, diverse and deeply woven into the fabric of the City. One source of information were the archa records, deeds held locally…
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Here There Are Blueberries ★★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
As with Glazer’s film, the play is really about the chilling ease with which normality sits alongside horror – Hannah Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’ – how everyday, small acts are part of the larger monstrosity. Is a young woman who relays an order for poisonous gas down a telephone line as culpable in genocide as the officer who rounds up…
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JDAL Sings! ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
The Jewish Dramatic Association of London (stylised as JDAL, pronounced “Jay-Dal”) was founded in 2024 as a safe space for Jewish creatives in the city to showcase their work. “During this time of rife Judeophobia,” they state on the website, “it’s vital for us to stick together and help one another as we fight for our place in the industry.”…
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Noah’s Woods — Jewish Renaissance
This thread of natural destruction is interwoven with the devastation and trauma of 7 October, offering a further, metaphorical, layering. The Falcon…, for example, aims to convey a sense of doom and the artist’s feelings about the war in the Middle East. The series was named from an excerpt of the poem The Second Coming by WB Yeats, which he…
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See Jeff Goldblum live this summer — Jewish Renaissance
Come the 1990s, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra was born and named after a friend of Goldblum’s mother. “I thought that was a funny name,” he told Rolling Stone in 2018, “and then this idea of the orchestra was funny…it’s kind of stuck since then.” Catch them playing their first UK shows at Wolverhampton Civic Hall (28 May), Glasgow Theatre Royal…
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Tattoos, tefillin and telling stories
To coincide with the release of a new book that portrays the lives of mother-daughter artists Lois and Carey, we speak to Rona Bar and Ofek Avshalom, the Israeli photographers behind the project “This one encounter opened us up to a whole new world,” says Rona Bar, one half of the photography duo Fotómetro. “[After seeing] their relationship, the house…
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Campaigners fight closure of Irma Stern museum — Jewish Renaissance
As the home and studio of the South African artist faces an uncertain future Deon Viljoen says its demise will mark a significant cultural loss Often embroiled in controversy during her lifetime, the South African-born painter, sculptor, and collector Irma Stern would probably have launched a fierce counteroffensive to the unexpected announcement that her home and studio, left by her…
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Jewish Stories in Our Own Words — Jewish Renaissance
Voloj, born in Germany to Colombian parents, is the executive director of Be’chol Lashon, an organisation dedicated to celebrating ethnic and racial diversity within the Jewish community, as well as the author of several graphic novels. His co-editor, Sapolsky, a French-American artist and writer with both Ashkenazi and Sephardic roots, is the co-creator of Spider-Man Noir and founder of FairSquare Press. Comics were their chosen format,…
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De-Composition – Beauty on the Edge of Nothingness — Jewish Renaissance
The exhibition at Burgh House consists primarily of collages and sculptural assemblages made from organic and inorganic materials found in fields and on beaches. The work is inspired by extended periods of time spent in Japan, including a recent four-week art residency there, and it is influenced by the Japanese philosophical aesthetic of ‘wabi sabi’. In her own eloquent words,…
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In conversation: Deb Filler
As Kiwi comic and musician Deb Filler kicks off her London run this month, Judi Herman speaks to her about the moments that made her Comedian, actor and musician Deb Filler has had one hell of a life and career, much of which we discover in Cohen, Bernstein, Joni and Me. This latest show from the Jewish New Zealander –…
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