Forward.com

An Israeli Filmmaker Finds an Unlikely MuseWhat do “Easy Rider,” Johnnie Walker, Walt Disney and the State of Israel have in common?Allow me to introduce Ami Ankilewitz. Born in Laredo, Texas, Ankilewitz was diagnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy as an infant, and his mother was told that he would not live past the age of 6. Now 34, he lives in a small apartment along…Read more

Bukharan VistaOver a period of seven years, photographer Zion Ozeri traveled to Uzbekistan, where he captured images of the Bukharan Jews, the Persian-speaking community that traces its history in the region back to the Middle Ages. The photographs are currently on display in New York at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, in an exhibit…Read more

Rare TextsOn November 15, Christie’s will auction off a collection of rare manuscripts from the private collection of the late Salman Schocken. The famous publisher of Franz Kafka, Gershom Scholem and S.Y. Agnon, Schocken was an avid collector of rare Jewish texts. Among the original manuscripts to be auctioned by Christie’s are poems…Read more

New Film Peers Into the Teenage Jewish ClosetTo proclaim “Hineini” — the Hebrew word for “Here I am” — is perhaps also to posit a question: If this is who I am and I stand here, who are you and where do you stand? Then, maybe, who are we and where do we stand?On November 13, a 60-minute documentary bearing this provocative Hebrew word as its title will make its premiere…Read more

FLASH FRAMESVladimir Jabotinsky may be best known as the father of Revisionist Zionism and as the author of the essay “The Iron Wall: We and the Arabs,” but he also was a novelist who is known for his Zionist re-fashioning of the biblical hero Samson. Written in Russian, “The Five: A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn-of-the Century Odessa” (Cornell…Read more