CULTURE
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Cable Street ★★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
The music is wonderfully eclectic, embracing a Jewish vibe as well as both Irish folk melody (hard to resist singing along to ‘The Rocky Road to Dublin’) and a terrific ongoing rap from Ginsberg’s Sammy. The versatile cast are accomplished singers too; Sophia Ragavelas’ Edie may depend on her son Ron, but her glorious singing voice belies her fragility. There…
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From Mumbai to Kerala: In Search of India's Jewish Story
JR’s subscriber trip to India last month was a delightful assault on the senses and sensibilities, says Monica Bohm-Duchen The flight from London to Mumbai, although long, went smoothly and by lunchtime on 16 January, Indian time, we were safely ensconced in the luxurious bubble of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. After the first of many truly delicious meals, a…
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Richard Rampton KC 1941-2023 — Jewish Renaissance
At this time Richard was starting to phase out his work at the bar and was pleased to accept JR’s invitation to be our honorary legal advisor. Those who met him at our annual parties for contributors were charmed by his warmth and wit. He loved to talk, but also to listen, to life experiences and different views. He added…
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Einstein and the Bomb ★★ — Jewish Renaissance
Netflix’s new Oppenheimer-wannabe documentary falls frustratingly short of the mark After the smash-hit success of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer comes Einstein and the Bomb. Netflix’s new film is an obvious attempt to capitalise on the current public interest in the Atomic Age and the scientists who brought it about. Unfortunately, it offers very little insight on the subject, instead coming across…
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Nobody Lives Here ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
Even so, Lex impulsively did just that. He removed his yellow star and went on the run. On the streets of Amsterdam, he was just one more small blonde boy, difficult for his Nazi oppressors to distinguish from non-Jewish children. Just 13 years old, he slept in an air-raid shelter, attic staircases and homes emptied of deported Jews. From time…
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What Will Survive of Us ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
It’s certainly true conversation is a vital part of their lovemaking, but there is plenty of graphically described action too, including some pretty hardcore S&M, as Sam discovers a penchant for bondage and submission and Lily realises that playing the dominatrix is a role that suits her. They seal their bond by buying a pretty – and effective – belt…
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Listening for God in Torah and Creation — Jewish Renaissance
It was important to me to embrace critical scholarship; no text can be understood without context. This applies especially to foundational religious texts, in which it’s easy to think that we have access to God’s unmediated word, when what we really have is the biblical authors’ understanding of God’s will in their place and time. The rabbinic tradition has always…
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Occupied City ★★★★ — Jewish Renaissance
As the lockdown restrictions ease, more political protests are documented. A left-wing anti-fascist rally; a commemoration of the Netherland’s role in slavery; a pro-Palestine demo. These events intermingle with footage of people going about their daily lives. Families skating on the frozen canals. Teenagers getting stoned in the park. A couple making out under a tree. All the while, the…
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A remarkable Jewish family — Jewish Renaissance
The poet dominated the show’s last room, which featured a draft of his 1917 protest letter, A Soldier’s Declaration, decrying World War I as misguided – an act that landed him in Craiglockhart, a military psychiatric hospital, where he became one of the first English patients to undergo Sigmund Freud’s ‘talking cure’. His late-in-life conversion to Catholicism would seem to…
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The Mother of Kamal ★★★★
Dina Ibrahim’s very personal family drama takes its audience on a journey to explore a history unfamiliar to many of us Despite a long history of living in relative peace with their neighbours, I have to admit that my first recollections of hearing about the Jews of Baghdad was when I read about the shocking fate of nine of them,…
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