CULTURE
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The Safekeep ★★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
It is apparent is that Isabel has a very intense, even strange, relationship with the home she grew up in. This feels somehow bound up with her extreme isolation. She is not simply single, she is almost defined by her solitude. Even more mysterious is what happened to the siblings’ parents, although we are aware that their mother is dead.…
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Jewish comedians have their shows pulled from the Edinburgh Fringe — Jewish Renaissance
Creeger said they were made to feel they “were no longer welcome” when informed on Friday 12 July they could no longer perform – just two weeks before the Fringe begins on 1 August. This is despite the fact the issue was apparently raised in May, as Luke Meredith, CEO of the PBH Free Fringe – host of Creeger and…
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The Fringe returns — Jewish Renaissance
The Lost Priest Orchard Theatre Company presents the premiere of this intimate one-man show about the complexities of growing up Jewish in modern-day America. Written, co-directed and performed by Gabe Seplow, The Lost Priest offers an insight into the actor’s struggles with identity and ethnicity, as told through childhood memories, historical anecdotes and everyday observations.➤ Friday 1 – Saturday 23…
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Sophie Zucker — Jewish Renaissance
I trained as a classical pianist when I was growing up and started writing my own songs – funny, silly songs – when I was 12. I figured out somewhere along the line that I didn’t want to do just music professionally, but being able to incorporate it into my comedy feels like I didn’t waste all that time –…
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Everyday Jews ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
At the end of Daniel Finkelstein’s memoir, Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad, his parents emerge from the horrors of the Gulag and the concentration camps to find “freedom’s reward…in Hendon, eating crusty bread rolls with butter in the Tesco café near the M1”. “Freedom’s reward”, Kahn-Harris points out, turned out to be “dull suburban life”. The synagogue he grew up…
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The Reckoning ★★★★
Dash Arts’ thought-provoking drama will leave you fulfilled – in more ways than one Some years ago, my late husband and I hosted a Ukrainian rabbinical student in our home. This led to my first experience of the vast and beautiful country, in 2005, when we were invited to his wedding. We returned several times to different parts of Ukraine,…
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Alan Yentob 1947-2025 — Jewish Renaissance
The BBC broadcaster has died aged 78. David Herman looks back at his influential career in TV Alan Yentob was one of the key figures in the golden age of BBC television in the late 20th century. He joined the organisation as a trainee in 1968. By 1973 he was working on BBC1’s flagship arts documentary series Omnibus. He produced…
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The Frogs ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
A fabulous cast finds its funny as gods, mortals and more in Sondheim’s merry musical fable One of many potent reasons for admiring Stephen Sondheim is his eclectic range of subject matter. From Sweeney Todd, the murderous barber of Fleet Street, to the reunion of still sparkling retired chorus girls in Follies, he and his collaborators excel in storytelling onstage…
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The Crucible ★★★★
Seven decades on and Arthur Miller’s thriller based on the Salem Witch Trials still hits a pertinent nerve Arthur Miller’s 1953 drama may be set in late 17th-century Massachusetts, but it’s no secret that he uses the Salem witch trials – which led to the imprisonment and even hanging of innocent men and women – as a metaphor for McCarthyism.…
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Riefenstahl ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
This new documentary on the filmmaker is the work of German director Andres Veiel. He was given access to Riefenstahl’s huge but disorganised archive of personal materials. The film is painstakingly constructed from these, alongside footage from Riefenstahl’s films and various broadcast interviews she gave over the years. The result is less a chronological narrative of her life and more…
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