Academy Awards
Terror and the Surveillance State on Film
Zero Dark Thirty and the Israeli documentary The Gatekeepers are up for Academy Awards. Only one should win.
Daybreak: Iran Denies Role in Burgas Bombing
Plus Syrian Druze are joining the opposition
Iran, Oscar Committee Both Hate Ben Affleck
From “Argo” to “Gangster Squad,” a celluloid news round-up
Israeli Documentaries Make Oscar Shortlist
‘The Gatekeepers’ and ‘Five Broken Cameras’ are being considered
Exonerating the Friedmans
Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki is trying to overturn Jesse Friedman’s 1989 Great Neck molestation conviction
Blackout in Tehran
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been banned from making movies for the next 20 years. Here’s how he got around the mullahs.
Prize Fighters
Joseph Cedar’s Footnote pits a Talmudic scholar against his academic son in a tale equal parts midrash, riddle, and Israeli political tragedy
2 or 3 Things I Know About ‘A Separation’
The Iranian film beat the Israeli film and the Polish Holocaust film
Daybreak: U.S. Doubts Iran Bomb Program
Plus WikiLeaks makes another splash, and more in the news
Dictatorial
Sacha Baron Cohen has been warned not to commit any stunts at the Oscars. But why should he listen? It’s not as if he’ll ever win one.
Out of ‘In Darkness,’ Reflection
A response to Agnieszka Holland’s Academy Award-nominated film
Writing Footnote
Director Joseph Cedar on Orthodox Judaism, The Social Network, and the nightmare scenario behind his latest Academy Award-nominated film
Daybreak: Hopeless, Syrian Rebels Get Fiercer
Plus U.N. report refers to Gaza ‘collective punishment,’ and more in the news
How a British Museum Curator Discovered Noah’s Ark Would Have Been Round
Irving Finkel, an expert on ancient Mesopotamia, decodes a Babylonian tablet and traces its path to the Book of Genesis
After the Holocaust, the Dutch Tried To Collect Past Due Taxes From Survivors
How one shy, whistle-blowing intern in an Amsterdam archive uncovered a travesty that insulted a decimated community
Centuries Ago, Jews Were Farmers Like Everybody Else. Why Did They Leave the Fields?
Two economists argue that literacy, not laws forbidding land ownership, created a small, widely dispersed and highly skilled minority
- Debating the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Demands Empathy, Not Just History
- Remembering Estelle Getty, Who Would Have Turned 91 Today
- Gigantic Replica of Solomon’s Temple Opens in Brazil
- Graphic Novelist Liana Finck on Yiddish Letters, Teen Angst, and Becoming a Book Person
