“Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted … Continue reading Menashe
What does it mean to be a Jewish poet? Can a non-Jew, like Micheal O’Siadhail, write about the Holocaust? (See The Gossamer Wall, Bloodaxe 2002). Maybe the Irish and the Jews have enough in common to be able to immerse themselves in each other’s histories. Does a writer and in particular a poet have to … Continue reading Belonging and belongings: Jewish poetry in the UK today
Canadian director Christian Duguay explores the horrors of World War Two from the perspective of two young Jewish boys living in Nazi-occupied France in Un Sac De Billes (A Bag of Marbles). Based on the acclaimed memoirs of the same name by Joseph Joffo, A Bag of Marbles is a lavishly shot production that is … Continue reading A bag of marbles (un sac de billes)
If smoked salmon and cream cheese bring but one thing to mind, then you are part of a long and fascinating edible history that has brought the roll with a hole from 17th century Poland to the freezers of the modern Anglo-American home. The talk will give a cultural but light-hearted overview of this … Continue reading The Bagel: past, present and future
The arrival of two orthodox Jews upsets the wedding day of a rural town clerk’s son in Hungary in 1945. This drama filmed in elegant black and white is from Hungarian director Ferenc Török. It captures the collective guilt of the community who have moved into the homes and taken possession of the property of … Continue reading 1945
Rosemary grew up as the daughter of a Czech immigrant in post-war UK and Canada. She was unaware of her father’s Jewish identity and of what really happened to his absent relatives. After her father’s death, she felt compelled to discover the truth about his family. Tracing her aunt Relly, who had emigrated to Australia … Continue reading Finding Relly
RBG is a remarkable documentary of the career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which spans several decades, and how she developed a legal legacy while becoming a pop culture icon. In the 1970s Ginsburg played a leading role as a legal warrior for women’s rights. “I ask for no favour for … Continue reading RBG
At the heart of growing fundamentalism in the Haredi sector lies the fate of women: rabbis have decreed bans on women driving, installed modesty patrols, enforced gender segregation on buses, and caused women’s faces to be omitted in newspapers and magazines. Whilst Haredi men attempt to render women voiceless and faceless, mainstream media does … Continue reading Women of Valour
The Jewish Influence on the British film industry and screening of The Man Who Got Carter, a documentary about the Jewish film producer Michael Klinger This event, part of the Jewish Historical Society’s Jewish History Month, jointly hosted by JHSE, Watershed, UWE and DAVAR will occur at the Watershed. It will provide a unique insight into the potent influence of … Continue reading The Jewish Influence on the British film industry and screening of The Man Who Got Carter, a documentary about the Jewish film producer Michael Klinger
Professor Eliezer Shkolnik, an elderly Talmudic scholar, whose long career has never amounted to much, has always been eclipsed by his middle-aged son – Professor Uriel Shkolnik, also a Talmudic specialist – who has been showered with all the awards and fellowships that he himself yearned for. The older man must now reconcile himself … Continue reading Footnote
If you have an event relating to Jewish culture or relevant to DAVAR members that you would like us to publicise, please email us at info@davarbristol.co.uk.