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Arts & Culture

Jonathan Ames does Israel

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Writer Jonathan Ames, creator of the HBO television series “Bored to Death,” is known for his fearless and exhibitionistic persona.

You can find YouTube videos of him eating herring and boxing at the same time, having knives thrown at him by a person called “Throwdini,” and ranting drunkenly at an awards ceremony. And when it comes to writing, Ames’s essays tend to cover racy topics.

Given these exploits, it’s a bit surprising to learn that Ames’s recent trip to Israel made his Jewish mother happy.

“My mom, for the entire length of my writing career, which began in 1989, was saying, ‘I wish your book would come out in Israel,’” Ames said.

 
 

Family activities on Memorial Day

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Teaneck’s Cedar Lane Family Festival offers activities for all, rain or shine, on Monday, May 27, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The festival begins with a service at the Municipal Green. At 12:30 p.m., there will be a veterans’ tribute with a guest of honor, John E. McGilchrist, Vietnam veteran and retired New Jersey National Guard lieutenant colonel. Special guests include Sen. Frank Lautenberg, State Sen. Loretta Weinger, Angelo Badalmenti, Tina Cervasio, and Denise Richardson.

The Teaneck Community Chorus will perfom at 1:30. Butterflake Bakery sponsors a blueberry pie eating contest at 2 and there will be a pickle eating contest sponsored by Picklelicious at 2:30.

From 3 to 6, there will be a cabaret competition hosted by Heather O’Connor.

Throughout the day, there will be children’s activities from American Legion Drive to Elm Avenue.

Event sponsors are Butterflake, Picklelicious, and Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, P.C. For more information, go to www.cedarlane.netwww.cedarlane.net.

 
 

Art walk in Paterson

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The Paterson Arts Council has brought together hundreds of regional and international artists to exhibit their work, create installation art, and perform on music stages throughout the Great Falls Historic District at the Art Factory, the adjacent National Park, the Paterson Museum, and Center City Mall. Art Walk over Memorial Day weekend is free and open to the public on Sunday, May 26, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

 
 

The other side of the nightmare

A dramatic story of the Jewish resistance in World War II Poland

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Warsaw — a vibrant, cosmopolitan magnet of the 1930s, bustling with shops, nightlife, museums, and a heady sense of place shared by its 1.3 million residents.

How could anyone fail to fall under the spell of a city boasting streets named Pleasant, Goose, Peacock, Valiant, Mushroom and Cordials?

And these were the thoroughfares that ultimately would come to define the heart of the wartime ghetto and its more than 400,000 Jewish inhabitants.

As Hitler’s eastward gaze settled on this crown jewel along the Vistula River, he thought only of a city that was much too Russified, one that would have to pay the ultimate price of his territorial ambitions, his contempt of Jews, Slavs, and communists and his designs on the Polish corridor and thus a clear path to Soviet soil. If Warsaw had the temerity to consider itself the Paris of the East, then the dictator would reduce it to the rubble of the Reich as part of a larger blitzkrieg against the nation.

 
 

Homage to Mel Brooks

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Thirteen’s American Masters documentary, “Mel Brooks: Make a Noise,” premieres nationally on PBS on Monday, at 9 p.m. The career-spanning film features never-before-heard stories and new interviews with stars, including Brooks, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Cloris Leachman, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, and Tracey Ullman.

After 60 years in show business, Mel Brooks has earned more major awards than any other living entertainer; he is one of 14 EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winners. A DVD with bonus material will be available Tuesday, from Shout Factory.

 
 

Music open house in Tenafly

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The JCC Thurnauer School of Music at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades is holding on open house on Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Participants can meet the distinguished instructors, who come from prominent conservatories including Juilliard, Yale, the Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes.

For information, call (201) 408-1465 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

 
 
 
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FILTERBYCATEGORY

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Hamming it up

Ben Feldman talks about the Jew factor on ‘Mad Men’

Advertising, it’s fair to say, is in Ben Feldman’s blood.

Yes, technically he plays a fictional advertiser, the Jewish copywriter in AMC’s award-winning drama “Mad Men.” But Feldman says it was his excellent marketing skills that landed him the role.

“The casting loved that I was a Jew in real life,” Feldman said. “They were looking for the typical character, a Jew with a heavy accent, and I played it up for all it was worth.”

 

Celluloid truths

Viewing Jewish life through films can be revealing, Eric Goldman says

We Jews are particularly good at text study.

We can take a source, examine each word, individually and in relation to the others surrounding it. We can squint, we can change the angle and the light, and then look again. We can investigate each word’s history, play with the spelling, change the verb tense, listen to the rhythm, follow the allusions. We can consider the period in which it was written and the personalities of generations of its explicators.

So who said we can do that only to written text?

 

42 Jackie Robinson’s fight with black nationalists over anti-Semitism

Moviegoers who went to the AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9 last week for the opening of “42” saw the story of how Jackie Robinson displayed legendary courage, class and talent in the face of immense pressure and racial hatred as he broke down baseball’s color barrier.

Less well known is Robinson’s role in a controversy that erupted just a few blocks away, at Harlem’s most famous theater, and underscored his commitment to fighting all bigotry, including prejudice emanating from his own community.

It was 1962, a decade and a half after Robinson first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and just a few years after he retired. Day after day, an angry crowd marched outside Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater protesting against its Jewish owner, Frank Schiffman, and his plan to open a low-cost restaurant with prices that could threaten the business of a more expensive black-owned eatery.

 

 

 
 
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