A rabbi’s summary of what Purim is really about. [Jewish Journal] “The Whipping Man” portrays the reality of Southern Jewish slave owners during Civil War. [AJC] Many items in Jewish Museum of Vienna were stolen by Nazis from Jewish families during Holocaust. [Algemeiner] Chuck Hagel’s probable tenure for defense secretary continues to cause disagreement in Washington. [Times of Israel] Benjamin Netanyahu presses his team to bring The Jewish Home into the coalition. [Israel Hayom] An …More

What makes for a Jewish movie? It’s not a simple question, but one worth examining given the inclusion of French drama “What’s In a Name?” in the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. The critically acclaimed film, based on the filmmakers’ 2010 play, charts the progression of a dinner party where childhood friends poke at old wounds through snappy dialogue. The farce opened number two in France against “The Avengers,” no small feat given the action’s visceral, visual …More

It's a relieved Judit Csaki from Budapest that calls journalists with the anticlimactic news: The dramatic news conference on state-sponsored anti-Semitism that she had scheduled for next week is canceled, as Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos has just announced the scrapping of plans to stage an anti-Semitic play at a city-funded theater. For the international journalists, her call merely means searching for a new item. For Csaki, a theater critic, and her peers, it is reassurance that someone in power still checks …More

Jesse Eisenberg is having one dramatic year. First he was nominated for a Drama League Award for his Rattlestick Playwrights Theater production, “Asuncion,” which he wrote and starred in. And he absolutely deserved that award (for once we agree with the critics). Take a quick look at a scene from the play below. Now it’s been announced that his latest drama “The Revisionist” will be highlighted in the 2012-2013 Rattlestick Playwrights Theater season in New York. The play revolves …More

William Shatner may have hexed himself when he wrote most of his one-man play “Shatner's World: We Just Live in It” as a reflection upon his imminent mortality. Just before the Thursday opening of his first Broadway show in 50 years, Shatner came down with a nasty bout of food poisoning. But ever the showman, Shatner gamely performed his life reflections to a standing ovation and rave reviews. Not content to just leave it at that (and still clearly suffering) Shatner then appeared on “Good …More

This photo perfectly represents the relationship between Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Bartha’s characters in the off-Broadway play “Asuncion.” Notice how Bartha is distractedly staring off, not engaging with Eisenberg? See the need in Eisenberg’s eyes, as he clings to his friend with fervid bromance? Eisenberg’s critically acclaimed play is exactly the sort of production you would imagine, if you imagined Jesse Eisenberg writing a play. There is quick dialogue. There are overtly …More

Don’t you miss “Scrubs”? And “Garden State”? And Zach Braff feeling misunderstood by the world? Mourn no longer, for Braff’s super angsty comedy “All New People” is coming to London for a ten week run in February. In it, Braff, who wrote and stars in the show, wants to spend his 35th birthday committing suicide in his beach house. Fortunately, three misfits interrupt his scheme, and hilarity ensues! Doesn’t that just sound like a knee slapper? Prior to its …More

The room is warm and humid, and a sand particles sparkle in the air. Though the stage is only an adult-sized sandbox on the floor of a small theater, it could easily stand in for the Israel portrayed in “GUTS,” Liat Ron’s one-woman show at PS122 in New York City. Crawling from beneath her bed like the monster of a childhood nightmare, Ron addresses body image disorders, finding and losing love, and existing somewhere between America and Israel through her semi-autobiographical character …More

Actor, writer, artist, pornographer, director, eternal student, professor … and spiritual medium? James Franco is opening his third eye to gaze beyond the veil of human existence for his upcoming performance “Three Artists in Search of Tennessee.” Franco will host a staged séance to call forth the ghost of Tennessee Williams for the play, which hits the stage on November 11 as a part of the Performa Arts Festival in New York. Franco is so spiritually advanced that he will channel the …More

The Social Network star Jesse Eisenberg is set to take to the stage in New York later this year to star in a play he wrote himself. The Oscar-nominated actor's play Asuncion will open Off-Broadway in October and he will tackle one of the lead roles in the tale of two liberal students whose ideals are challenged when a young Filipina girl becomes their new roommate. The production, to be held at Manhattan's Cherry Lane Theatre, will be Eisenberg's debut as a playwright, while he last appeared on the New York …More