 WHAT’S
NEW
In our news section, learn about a Jewish town crier in
Dorset; see what happened at Moscow Limmud; find out about
Illumination, the stunning new exhibition at the
Jewish Museum and meet Mark Andrews, Tilly
Gifford and Dan Glass of Climate9
who have been on trial for the direct action they took at
Aberdeen Airport
OPINION
The debate on the rights and wrongs of the Israeli conflict
risks tearing the community apart. Joel Braunold
suggests how we can avoid demonizing our opponents in Watch
your Language
JR
INTERVIEW
AN EDITOR FOR OUR TIMES?
Janet Levin meets Stephen Pollard,
Editor of the JC and finds out how he plans to meet
the challenges of a falling traditional market and the trend
away from buying newspapers
HERITAGE
DEAD SEA SCROLLS – THE DISPUTE RUNS ON
Learn more about the current state of the sometimes ferocious
scholarly debate about who produced the Scrolls and the arguments
of each side in this article by Samuel Warshaw
JUDAISM
AND…
JUDAISM AND DIVORCE
Jeremy Rosen looks into the history of getting
a get and the agunah problem. Plus information
on what to do if you need help on this issue
THE
JEWS OF SLOVAKIA
The story of Slovakia’s once thriving community; life
through fascism and communism to contemporary revival
TIMELINE by Lucia Faltin
and Agi Erdos
An overview from Roman times to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
FIGHTER FOR ORTHODOXY: THE CHATAM SOFER
Charles Landau assesses the life and achievements
of this towering figure of 19th-century rabbinic Judaism
LIFE ON THE RUN
Gertrud Friedmann tells a story of survival
during the Second World War, a journey which took her family
from Piestany, through Bratislava to Zelena; then to meet
and work with the partisans in Banska Bystrica; and via mountains,
forests and villages to Zvolen, where they found themselves
living in the same house as SS officers. A story of remarkable
ingenuity and fortitude
YURI DOJC
Monica Bohm-Duchen talks to Canadian top
photographer who has recently reconnected to his Slovak Jewish
roots and produced remarkable images of a lost heritage
THE FIRST TO REVEAL THE TRUTH ABOUT AUSCHWITZ
The story of Alfred Wetzler and Rudolph
Vrba who escaped from the extermination camp and
reported its horrors to the outside world
GROWING UP JEWISH IN COMMUNIST SLOVAKIA
Tanya Kernova, Alfred Wetzler’s
daughter, and filmmaker Katya Krausova talk
to Janet Levin about life and Jewish identity
under communism
EMERGING FROM THE SHADOWS
Peter Salner writes about the revival of
Jewish life in the Bratislava community
ANTISEMITISM NOW
RECOVERING LOST ROOTS
Slovak Jews Luba Lesna and Pavol
Matašeje rediscover their lost heritage
CHASIDIC SONG PROJECT
Rabbi Baruch Myers and Slovak cellist Jozef
Luptak join forces to produce an unusual concert
of chasidic music to commemorate the 400th birthday of the
Baal Shem Tov
CHABAD IN BRATISLAVA
The Lubavitch follow their own vision of
Jewish life
PASSIONATE ABOUT HERITAGE
Janet Levin visits the Slovak Jewish Heritage
Centre and hears about the dedication Maros Boršky and
Jana Švantnerová put into conserving what remains
JEWISH COMMUNITIES NOW
An overview of the various scattered small communities and
their activities
FILM
BOLD, BRAVE AND WELL-EXECUTED
Emma Bondor reviews four films she saw at
the Tel Aviv University film festival: Adi Azoulay’s
Command; Yuval Shani’s Segal;
Yvan Rabinovich’s Banana Monologues
and Jonathan Geva’s1:0
YIDDISH
FOR TODAY
FIRST LANGUAGE YIDDISH – SECOND TAMIL
David Russell hears from Meena-Lifshe
Viswanath about the remarkable Schaechter
dynasty, a family where the parents would not speak English
to their children, plus a poem by Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath
MAKING A JOKE OF IT
Judi Herman talks to writer and comedian
David Schneider about why he loves, and performs
in, Yiddish
VEY’Z MIR OY VEY’Z MIR
Harvey Widell meets American performers of
Gilbert and Sullivan in Yiddish
ROMEO AND JULIET IN YIDDISH
Jessica Jacoby sees the premiere of a film
in which Montague and Capulet in Verona are replaced by Satmar
and Chasid in Brooklyn
ARCHITECTURE
EDGINESS AND CREATIVITY IN FINCHLEY ROAD
Eli Abt appraises plans for JCC London’s
new building designed by Alex Lifschutz
ART
THE ‘OLD MAN’ REVISITED – BEN-GURION
IN ISRAELI ART
An exhibition of photographs, paintings and caricatures, giving
a fresh view of this iconic figure of Israeli history –
appraised by Angela Levine
MUSIC
CANTOR FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Malcolm Miller talks to Steven Leas,
charismatic young chazan of the Central Synagogue in London,
who started his career as a choir boy in South Africa
BOOKS
DOCUMENTING THE RESCUERS
Judith Mirzoeff is in conversation with Agnes
Grunwald-Spier, herself a Holocaust survivor, who
has published a book about people who saved Jews during the
war
REVIEWS
A new biography of Raoul Wallenberg reviewed
by Peter Falush
Jacob’s Cane by Elisa New
reviewed by Agi Erdos
David Herman reviews Jewish Refugees
from Germany and Austria in Britain, 1933-1970 by Anthony
Grenville
My Grandfather’s False Teeth by Roberta
Aarons reviewed by Marge Clouts
2010: AN ISRAELI SPACE ODYSSEY
SF author Guy Hasson explains the explosion
of science fiction in Israel and looks at how far the themes
of its authors are particularly Jewish or Israeli. Writers
covered include Lavie Tidhar and Ron
Yaniv and Hasson himself
POETRY
POETRY REVIEW
Isaac Rosenberg: Student Guide Literary Series by
Stephen Wilson and Centuries of Skin
by Joanna Ezekiel reviewed by Liz
Cashdan
POETRY CHOICE
Liz Cashdan chooses poems by Wendy
Klein
Please click HERE for details
of how to submit poems to JR
LAST
WORDS
Dovid Katz tells readers how to Talk
of Love in Yiddish
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