Films of the Holocaust and non-Jews

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 8, 2012

Two documentary films, each touching the Holocaust era and celebrating the courage and devotion of non-Jews, are screening in Los Angeles. The first is about Leopold Engleitner, bright-eyed and lucid at 107, who spent 11 years in and out of prisons and Nazi concentration camps, and, after a flight from Vienna to Los Angeles, is ready for his personal appearance tour.

Jobbik chief out to prove that Hungarian party isn’t anti-Semitic

Published on July 2, 2012

Days after one of his colleagues admitted to having Jewish roots, a far-right Hungarian politician challenged the country's Jewish communal leader to a debate.

With Tony Curtis profile, docs shine at Jewish fest

By Tom Tugend
Published on April 18, 2012

For its opening night on May 3, the Jewish Film Festival appropriately returns to one of Hollywood’s golden ages and to one of its most celebrated Jewish stars, Bernie Schwartz, aka Tony Curtis.

Far-right Jobbik gains in Hungarian elections

Published on April 26, 2010

Hungary’s openly anti-Semitic nationalist Jobbik Party secured 47 seats in the 386-seat legislature in the second round of parliamentary elections.

Rightward swing in Hungarian elections

Published on April 12, 2010

A far right party, Jobbik, won 26 seats in Hungarian parliamentary elections Sunday, to the dismany of Hungarian and European Jewish leaders.

The winner in Sunday's election was the conservative Fidesz party and its ally the Christian People’s Party, which together took 206 seats in the 386-seat Parliament. Fidesz now has until June to form a government.

You don’t have to be Hungarian, but it helps

By Gabriel Sanders
Published on March 15, 2007

Biro's attitude toward his ancestral land is complex. He is enchanted by its mysteries, disgusted by its villains and, ultimately, bereft in the face of what he sees as its disappearance.

Literary paprika

By Tom Teicholz
Published on January 25, 2007

For this writer, at a time when literary books no longer hold the general culture in thrall and in a city where many sit alone in rooms wondering, in the words of E.M. Forster, "how to connect," it is reassuring to read a blog where someone cares about literature and those novels that may never make the best-seller lists.

Hungarian Novelist Takes Manhattan

By Sandee Brawarsky
Published on December 9, 2004

When Imre Kertesz was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2002, few Americans had read the work of the Hungarian novelist, the first survivor of the concentration camps to be awarded the literary prize. Even in his own country, his works were not well known; his subject, largely the Holocaust, was not popular.

Hungarian Baker Rises to Success

By Sarah Price Brown
Published on September 9, 2004

Since Meir Jacobs bought the J&T Bread Bin 34 years ago, the bakery hasn't changed much. Nestled in the center of the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax, it retains its old-world charm -- the original glass showcases line the store's perimeter, and the original orange "Bread Bin" metal signs hang on both sides of the store. Handwritten yellow notes advertise the goods: chocolate danishes, raspberry hamantaschen, sprinkled cookies, lemon bars, macaroons and more.

It's the Hungarian treats that reveal the bakery's hidden history. The loaves of glazed cinnamon raisin bread, the apple squares and the three-flavored puff pastries called kalaches give meaning to Jacobs' words: "This is a very old-fashioned-style bakery."

An old-fashioned Hungarian bakery fashioned after its owner.

Showtime Examines Shoah Diva Doctor

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on April 10, 2003

In Showtime's "Out of the Ashes," a Holocaust survivor steps off a boat at New York Harbor, imperiously hands her battered suitcase to her American niece and embarks on a shoe shopping spree.

The TV movie is the story of Dr. Gisella Perl (Christine Lahti), the Hungarian gynecologist who saved 1,000 women by performing secret abortions in Auschwitz. "She was also a bit of a diva," Lahti said.

Epic Proportions

By Tom Tugend
Published on June 8, 2000

"Sunshine" is a massive, sprawling film that spans 120 years in the lives and loves of four generations of a Hungarian Jewish family.