Tablet Magazine » Bollywood

Sundown: Controversial Novelist Dies

Marc Tracy — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:04:00 +0000

• The Nobel Prize-winning Portuguese novelist José Saramago died. He will be remembered as a great writer … and as the man who in 2002 compared Israeli actions in the West Bank to German actions at Auschwitz. [NYT]

• If it wasn’t clear enough before, the United States can definitely no longer count on Turkey backing it on major issues. [National Interest]

• Is Turkey attempting to revive its Ottoman (read: imperial) roots? [TNR]

• A profile of Elena Kagan’s family, which managed to be Jewish, left-wing, and Upper West Side, all at the same time. [NYT]

• Bollywood is making a controversial Hitler biopic. [Arts Beat]

• Indoors this weekend? Check out Executive Editor Gabriel Sanders interviewing Kai Bird, author of the memoir Crossing Mandelbaum’s Gate, on Book TV. [CSPAN]

A song about Molly Bloom. Music (and performer): Alicia Jo Rabins. Lyrics: James Joyce.

Alicia Jo Rabins sings Molly Bloom from Tablet Magazine on Vimeo.

Tablet Is a National Magazine Award Finalist!

Marc Tracy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:00:26 +0000

Please allow us a brief bow: Tablet Magazine is a finalist for a National Magazine Award for Digital Media! Specifically, our Vox Tablet podcast series is up for the podcasting award. Congratulations also to the other finalists in the category: Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Harvard Business Review, and IEEE Spectrum.

Out of 37 Websites that are finalists for one of the Digital Media awards, only five are online-only, and we’re proud to be one of those, too (as well as the only one in our category).

What’s that you say? You want to know which podcasts we submitted to the nominating board?

• “Remembrance Day”: Gregory Warner reports from Rwanda on commemorating the country’s 1994 genocide, with Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day as a template.

• “The Queens of Bollywood”: Eric Molinsky discusses the early days of India’s Bollywood movie factories, when most of the leading ladies—from Rose Ezra to Ruby Myers—were Baghdadi Jews.

• “Blessed Bluegrass”: Jon Kalish profiles Orthodox bluegrass musician Jerry Wicentowski, whose observance prevents him from weekend gigs, but not from virtuosic guitar work

Finally, mazel tov to Senior Editor Sara Ivry and Audio Executive Producer Julie Subrin. This is well-earned and well-deserved recognition for them especially.

ASME Announces Digital Elles Finalists [American Society of Magazine Editors]
Vox Tablet [Tablet Magazine]

Sundown: Religious Israeli Sues H&M

Marc Tracy — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 21:30:59 +0000

• An Israeli woman is suing international clothing-store chain H&M for allegedly refusing to hire her for a sales position in Israel because she was too religious. [ynet]
• Comedic writer/director Judd Apatow discusses the Jewish aspects of his forthcoming movie, Funny People, and says, “I’m not a religious person, but I couldn’t be more Jewish.” [Jewish Journal]
• The Guardian’s Sounds Jewish podcast this month examines, among other things, Tablet’s podcast about the leading Jewish ladies of Bollywood. [Guardian]
• If you want, go visit the National Museum of Jewish American History’s website and vote for the 18 Jews from six fields that you think should be featured at the museum, which is set to open next year in Philadelphia. [Arutz Sheva]

The Queens of Bollywood

Vox Tablet — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:00:32 +0000

Rose Ezra. Ruby Myers. Farhat Ezekiel Nadira. From the earliest years of Bollywood, these and other Jewish actresses garnered starring roles. And while they may have looked somewhat exotic to moviegoers, they came from Baghdadi Jewish families who had been living in India for decades. Reporter Eric Molinsky speaks to film scholars, as well as friends and relatives of these once-beloved but now mostly forgotten stars of Indian cinema, to find out how they became the “go-to girls” for leading female roles in the 1920s, ’30s, and beyond.