Palestine National Orchestra debuts

Published on January 3, 2011

The Palestine National Orchestra performed for the first time in the Palestinian Authority and in Israel. The orchestra made its debut in Ramallah, and then performed in eastern Jerusalem over the weekend and in Haifa on Sunday night. "Today an orchestra, tomorrow a state," Suhail Khoury, director of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, wrote in the program, according to the French news agency AFP.

Women plot revenge against a sexist ‘70s boss in ‘9 to 5: The Musical’ (what a way to make a livin’)

By Shoshana Lewin Fischer
Published on September 11, 2008

"It seems that in a musical you would get to know people less -- I actually think you get to know them more" -- Patricia Resnick, writer of "9 to 5"

Even Maidelehs Don Pasties

By Keren Engelberg
Published on February 24, 2005

Jewish girl stereotypes get tossed -- including one you might have heard about them being prudes -- when "Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad" makes its West Coast debut this Thursday night at Tangier.

As creator and emcee Susannah Perlman describes it, the variety show features comedy, spoken word, music and burlesque acts that speak to the Jewish condition, performed by women who have appeared on Comedy Central, HBO, MTV and late night television.

7 Days in the Arts

By Keren Engelberg
Published on February 17, 2005

7 days in the Arts.

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on March 6, 2003

"Welcome to Heavenly Heights" by Risa Miller (St. Martin's Press, $23.95).


Many writers have imagined the Jewish immigrant experience, setting their novels and short stories on the Lower East Side and places like that, where newcomers can forge their way to become Americans. Risa Miller's debut novel, "Welcome to Heavenly Heights," is a different version of that story, with American Jews making new homes in Israel, reversing the exile. This transition can be more pressure cooker than melting pot, mixing idealism, religion, bureaucracy, family complexities, shifting expectations, love and, never far away, violence.

Isn’t She ‘Lovely?’

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on June 27, 2002

Nicole Holofcener is laughing at her Caesar salad, a sparse, pathetic-looking thing she ordered with no croutons and dressing on the side.