One, two, three, four. Counting rings out as children repress their giggles and face each other. Meeting arm-to-arm, elbow-to-elbow, they step right, right, right, right and turn. It could be any youth ballroom dance class, but it is one in Jaffa, one of Israel's only cities where Arabs, Christians and Jews live together in relative peace, so forces together children of opposing cultures. This is Pierre Dulaine’s program Dancing Classrooms, which is still going strong two years after the ballroom dance …More

Last week Seth Rogen and James Franco pulled a hilarious April Fool’s day prank on the world with their fake “Pineapple Express 2” trailer, which turned out to actually be a trailer for their upcoming movie “This is the End,” in which the two actors play themselves surviving an alien apocalypse during a party at Franco’s house. Following that, they’ve released an ACTUAL trailer for the comedy, which also stars Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson. “This is …More

HaGashash HaHiver, affectionately shortened Gashash, is arguably the most influential comedy act in the history of Israel. The trio, who won an Israeli Prize for lifetime achievement in 2000, worked with elaborate wordplay, enacting classic skits—“The Judge and the Referee,” “Kreker vs. Kreker”—which are still quoted today. In Israel, they inspired the same fierce loyalty and homages that the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges continue to enjoy. Never heard of Gashash? Not a …More

Mistaken identity, a love triangle, phony copies and an art heist: it hardly sounds like a Holocaust movie. Yet “My Best Enemy,” opening at the IFC Center in New York on Friday, Jan. 11, is just that: A caper, complete with jazzy music, which uses the plight of the Jews during World War II as a historical backdrop. Childhood best friends Victor Kaufmann (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Rudi Smekal (Georg Friedrich) finally reunite after the latter’s world travels at the Kaufmann’s art gallery in …More

Though comedies, romances and experimental shorts make a showing, it is the documentaries that rule the annual New York Jewish Film Festival (NYJFF). Presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, NYJFF runs Jan. 9-24 this year. Thematic sidebar presentations augment the scheduled programing, and revive restored archival prints to the big screen. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and artist Art Spiegelman provides insights in his documentary “The Art of Spiegelman,” showing on Jan. …More

In 1970, Eduard Kuznetzov lead a group of 15 Soviets, including Sylva Zalmanson, in an effort to steal a plane and escape Soviet Russia. The group, mostly Jews forbidden from leaving the USSR, realized that they faced the risk of discovery, imprisonment, or being shot down while in flight. Still, they persevered with their plan, even when they knew their efforts had been discovered by the KGB. With her impassioned words during what became known as the Leningrad Trial—"If I forget thee oh Jerusalem, let my …More

If “This Is 40” turns out to be a dud at the box office, Judd Apatow will have no one but his own family to blame. Of course, that’s probably not entirely true and certainly no one is hoping for that. And by all accounts, the film, Apatow’s sort-of-sequel to 2007’s “Knocked Up,” will do quite well when it is released on December 21. But “This Is 40” is interesting in that it continues Apatow’s trend of casting his wife, Leslie Mann, and their two …More

One blemish marks British Jewish comedian Stephen Fry’s unconditional adoration of Richard Wager: Adolf Hitler’s shared passion for the revolutionary composer. This contradiction—how to love the music played before Nazi rallies while staying true to relatives who died during the Holocaust—is explored in Patrick McGrady’s documentary “Wagner & Me,” adapted from a 2010 BBC special. The feature-length version still displays some of the campiness that plays so well on …More

If Bill Murray seems an odd choice for the star of “Hyde Park on Hudson,” it is because he is an inspired one. Like FDR, who for the first minutes of the film is referred to only as the enigmatic “Him,” Murray is a character of the highest order, complete with the same gentle magnetism. Rather than an outright impression, an act that would have bordered on the offensive, Murray’s portrayal is a softening of the icon. Not conducting fireside chats or at state dinners, we see Franklin …More

In the first trailer for the upcoming Brad Pitt action film, “World War Z,” IDF soldiers can be seen helping deal with a zombie situation. Based on the book by Max Brooks, son of the ineffable comedian Mel Brooks, “World War Z” features Israel in a big way. Sparked by the spread of the zombie plague, the State of Israel is the first and only country to impose a national quarantine in a bid to save its population of Jews and Palestinians. Pitt, playing U.N. worker Gerry Lane, is asked to …More

There are men in Israel who hide both their nationality and sexuality. They disguise themselves with Jewish star necklaces and live in unidentified apartments, working illegally doing odd jobs to get by. Their parents have threatened to kill them, and the Israeli police seeks to deport them. They are the Palestinian gay of Tel Aviv, the subject of director Yariv Mozer’s film “The Invisible Men,” currently playing at the Other Israel Film Festival in New York City. Thirty-two year-old Louie has …More

It all started with the raccoons tearing up the corners of the sod in the middle of the night. That’s not entirely accurate. It all started with a plate of cheese and salami, a bottle of poison, a bag of weed, an illegal construction plan, a stolen drink, an unplanned pregnancy, a bow and arrow, and a dialysis machine. It all started with a cat lady, a dissatisfied housewife, a doctor and a basketball coach. It all started the day suburbanite Jeffery Lang (Tobey Maguire) and his wife Nealy (Elizabeth …More