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Songs About Roots

By Masha Leon

“We can’t promote human rights abroad unless we can defend human rights at home,” author and journalist Sheryl WuDunn said at the October 14 New York Women’s Foundation dinner at Gotham Hall. The dinner honored her and her husband (via video), New York Times correspondent Nicholas Kristof. WuDunn and Kistoff are co-authors of “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide,” and the first couple to share a Pulitzer Prize for journalism.Read More

A Yiddish Fête

By Masha Leon

The October 8 New York Police & Fire Widows’ & Children’s Benefit Fund at the New York Hilton was a historic moment. For the first time, four New York City mayors —Michael Bloomberg, Rudolph Giuliani, David Dinkins and Ed Koch —were recognized by a single cause. “I never pass a cop on the corner without stopping to say thanks for keeping us safe,” Bloomberg said.Read More

Glitz, Glamour and the Arts

By Masha Leon

Artist Ed Ruscha, recipient of the Artistic Excellence Award at the October 5 Americans for the Arts 2009 National Arts Awards dinner, joked that all the evening’s honorees should collaborate on a film based on Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses.” In response, Rushdie, who accepted the Kitty Carlisle Hart Award from a longtime friend, writer Paul Auster, quipped that he was ready to do it, providing he starred in the film. “Books are here to stay,” Rushdie assured the stellar gathering at Cipriani 42nd Street.Read More

Serious Yiddishisms

By Masha Leon

In retrospect, had I known in November 2002 of Joel and Ethan Coen’s Minnesota Jewish roots, oy! The questions I would have asked! Back then, we were at the French Embassy in New York, and France’s outgoing ambassador to the United States, François Bujon de l’Estaing, conferred the chevalier designation of the Order of Arts and Letters on the brothers, whose film creations include “Fargo,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and “The Big Lebowski.” Telling the Coens, “You have a great following in France, like Woody Allen and Jerry Lewis,” de l’Estaing added, “In 1950, [Lewis] was declared a genius.”Read More

Appeal to the Senses

By Masha Leon

It was “Cheers” to prime minister Gordon Brown of Britain, “à votre santé” to Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO, LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, and “sagliginiza” (to your health in Turkish) to Muhtar Kent, the Coca-Cola Company’s chairman and CEO — honorees at the September 22 Appeal of Conscience Foundation Awards Dinner.Read More

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