The long forecast “Holocaust fatigue” among filmmakers and their audiences has not yet arrived, judging by the entries for 2013 Oscar honors by producers and directors in numerous countries.
\”I remember at an early age being told in school that Jews were a minority in the world,\” filmmaker Azazel Jacobs mused. \”And I remember just not believing that because I lived in New York City and thinking they must have things wrong because I was surrounded by so many Jews. That was the whole world to me.\”
Conlon became a maestro with a mission: to help revive the music of composers banned (and often murdered) by the Nazis.
From establishing funds through the Jewish Community Foundation in Los Angeles to starting the Simha and Sara Lainer Fund for Jewish Education through the BJE of Greater Los Angeles to supporting Israel, Lainer and Sara were key supporters of the Jewish community.
Miriam Prum-Hess, an experienced and admired Federation executive, took on a new role working on behalf of day schools last year, an effort to increase the level of professionalism and efficiency in all nonacademic areas. She has become the central address for day schools looking for expertise on operational issues — fundraising strategies, legal advice, business decisions, purchasing, and human resources.
\”Keeping Up With the Steins\” proves that you don\’t have to be Jewish to make a funny, insider Jewish film, or that if you grow up in the Bronx or went to school in North Hollywood, you become a Jew by osmosis.
For more than two decades, Alice Greenwald has been helping to give people a palpable understanding of the Holocaust through her work with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.
Were Spielberg another too-left Hollywood type who cavalierly flirted with the tough issues posed by \”Munich\” with no previous record of involvement or concern about Jewish matters, one might begin to fathom the nastiness of the attacks and the gratuitous personal barbs. But he comes to the movie with a distinguished, if not unparalleled, track record of achievement vis a vis the Jewish community, Israel and its image.
Martin Scorsese has famously influenced a whole generation of American filmmakers, from Abel Ferrara and Quentin Tarantino to Rob Weiss and Nick Gomez. But his influence is not limited to filmmakers in this country.
\”Everybody loves this guy,\” said Cantor Nathan Lam of Bel Air\’s Reform synagogue, Stephen S. Wise Temple, and dean of the Jewish academy\’s cantorial school. \”He\’s a special human being. He makes a room feel good. If you\’re sick, he\’s the guy you want to come and cheer you up.\”
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