Author: Glen Berd

Documentary takes film lovers behind the scenes of making ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ ‘Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen’ breaks down the movie magic of a beloved 50-year-old musical, and shows how the film brought gentile director Norman Jewison closer to Judaism By RENEE GHERT-ZAND    'Fiddler on the Roof' director Norman Jewison (right) on set in 1970 with Chaim Topol, who played Tevye. (Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films) Norman Jewison (in baseball cap) directs on set of 1971 film 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Chaim Topol, who played Tevye, is second from right. (Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films) 'Fiddler on the Roof' director Norman Jewison at his home in Malibu, California during interview with 'Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen' director Daniel Raim in 2016. (Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films) A photo capturing the filming of the 1971 film 'Fiddler on the Roof,' directed by Norman Jewison. (Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films) In the late 1960s, film director Norman Jewison was in despair about the political upheavals in America...

Israel Baline was only five, a little guy living in Tyumen, a village in Siberia. An anti-Jewish mob attacked the town, and the Baline family fled their ruined home and eventually made the long, arduous journey to New York’s Lower East Side. Just three years later, when he was eight, little Israel’s father died, and he went to work. The years marched on, and “Izzy”, as he was known, taught himself to play the piano and found he had a knack for song writing. As he grew to manhood, he felt himself blessed to make a living from his music, but even more so, to live in freedom and safety. He served in WWI and wrote several successful patriotic songs. This of course was the Great War, the war that was to end all wars. Such was not to be the case, and in 1938, Izzy, now a successful composer in NY, found himself a visitor in Berlin as the Nazi spectre began...

We were delighted to welcome Marc Levy and Mark Addlestone from the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region to the shul to discuss working closely with us to benefit our local community. In particular we hope we can spread the news about how fantastic a place it is to live in.   There's nowhere like Lytham or St. Anne's with it's thriving Jewish community and social life along with the shops, roadside cafes and miles and miles of beach and fresh sea air. We have welcomed many 'immigrants' from both North and South Manchester as well as further afield in recent years, and along with attendances to shul services, Shabbat kiddushim every week, and regular social events throughout the year, the community is continuing to grow and thrive. FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF JRC : Our Chair and Chief Executive spent time earlier today with the Rabbi and members of the St Annes Hebrew Congregation. So pleased to hear that the Shul is continuing...

https://youtu.be/QKmIyI-clWI...

A Nazi officer’s housekeeper hid 12 Jews in the basement. All of them made it out alive. “Without her, I wouldn’t be alive,” said Roman Haller, who was conceived while his parents were in hiding. Irena Gut.Family photo/NBC News By Rich Schapiro Roman Haller owes his life to a 20-year-old housekeeper. He was conceived in the basement of a home in Poland where his parents and 10 other Jews hid out during World War II. It wasn’t just any house. It belonged to a Nazi officer, and it was his housekeeper who smuggled the Jews to the basement and took care of them in secret. Over two years, the young woman, Irena Gut, went to extraordinary lengths to keep the 12 people safe and ensure that Haller would get a chance at life. After finding out about the pregnancy, his parents asked Gut to help them perform an abortion because a crying baby would endanger all of their lives. But she insisted they have the baby. Roman Haller with...

Thanks to Melvyn Cainer of Harriet Fashions on Clifton Street in Lytham. He was checking through some old photos of his late Father, when he happened upon a page from the Blackpool Gazette dated 1931 !! There he saw a whole page of photos, including a trip by some Manchester boys, to attend a ceremony in Ashton Gardens - and including a very young image of his late Father ! Do you recognise anyone in these old images ??   ...

Pfizer boss Bourla receives $1M. Genesis Prize, pledges funds for Holocaust museum Protesting anti-vaxxers greet hundreds of guests at star-studded Jerusalem event; Bourla, son of Greek survivors, to give cash to planned Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki By SUE SURKES - Times of Israel  Dr Albert Bourla (right) receives the 2022 Genesis Prize from Israel's President Isaac Herzog, left, and Stan Polovets, co-founder and chairman/CEO of the Genesis Prize Foundation. (Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO) Albert Bourla, the CEO and chairman of Pfizer, accepted this year’s annual $1 million Genesis Prize in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, announcing that he would donate the funds towards a planned Holocaust Museum in Thessaloniki, Greece, where he was born. Bourla, the son of Holocaust survivors, led his company to develop the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 in just nine months. Nearly 20 million lives were estimated to be saved by COVID-19 vaccines during the first year they became available. The annual prize, awarded since 2014, is given to “extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment...

The song, in English and Yiddish, sadder in the original Yiddish than in the English translation, the mother implicitly symbolizes a sense of nostalgia for the "old world", as well as guilt for having left it behind in assimilating into American society.   "My Yiddishe Momme" is a song written by Jack Yellen (words and music) and Lew Pollack (music), first recorded by Willie Howard, and was made famous in Vaudeville by Belle Baker and by Sophie Tucker, and later by the Barry Sisters. Tucker began singing "My Yiddishe Momme" in 1925, after the death of her own mother. She later dedicated her autobiography Some of These Days to Yellen, "A grand song writer, and a grander friend". Sophie Tucker made 'Mama' a top 5 U.S. hit in 1928, English on one side and Yiddish on the B-side. Leo Fuld combined both in one track and made it a hit in the rest of the world   https://youtu.be/msXoInq243c...