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Ronald K. Brown/Evidence

Cdeb rity
• Jews

NATE BLOOM
Special to the Jewish News

The African Shoah

Opening last week in Detroit was
the film Hotel Rwanda, about the
1994 massacre of almost a million
Rwandan Tutsis by their Hutu coun-
trymen. The film centers on a Hutu
hotel owner who saved the lives of
1,200 Tutsis. Brit actress SOPHIE
OKONEDO, who is the daughter of
a Nigerian father and a British
Jewish mother, plays the hotel
owner's wife.
The parallels with the Jewish
Shoah were on the minds of many
who helped make the film — from
Okenedo, who went to the Belgian
Shoah museum to help research her
role, to the Israel Bank Leumi,
which helped finance the film, to
Jewish executive producers HAL
SADOFF and MARTIN KATZ.
The shame of Rwanda is that the
world knew more about was what
happening than during the Jewish
Shoah and still did nothing —
despite the fact that the killers could
have been
more easily
stopped than
the Nazis. As
Okonedo told
the Jewish
Journal of
Greater Los
Angeles: "It
wouldn't have
taken very
much to stop
Sophie Okonedo
the genocide.
These people
were slaughtered with machetes."
Relatively new to film, Okonedo
has the rep of being one of the
brightest British stage actresses. She
told Newsweek that she grew up in
public housing and that in their
small apartment, her family had a
big bookcase with tons of books.
One day, Okonedo said, a housing
project inspector, assuming that
poor people don't read, said to her
mother, "What do you do with all
those books?" Well, the actress said,
her mother called her to say, "That
bloke knows what we did with the
books now.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16, 6 PM
MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 8 PM
Power Center

Hold-Em Hebrews

Celebrity Poker on the Bravo channel
has been one of the cable station's
biggest hits, and a new round of
competition started on Jan. 5. There
are five weekly games (for charity),
and the winner of these games plays
in a season-ending championship
round.
Original Jewish host KEVIN
POLLAK is no longer around, but
as in past competitions, a lot of
other Jewish celebs will appear:
BRAD GARRETT (Everybody Loves
Raymond), CHRIS KATTAN (of
SNL fame); SARA RUE (Less Than
Perfect); CAMRYN MANHEIM
( The Practice); SCOTT WOLF
(Everwood); KEVIN WISEMAN
(Alias); and JASON ALEXANDER
(Seinfeld). (Check the Bravo Web
site, www.BravoTV.com , for the
extensive rerun schedule).
Speaking of Pollak, he co-stars in
the upcoming Hostage, a new Bruce
Willis thriller with great advance
"buzz." Look for handsome young
Jewish actor BEN FOSTER (Six Feet
Under) in a large supporting role.

Ronald K. Brown's choreography "has zoomed to the
forefront of modern dance by virtue of its exquisitely
sculpted movement and a compelling sense that
dance springs from a deep well of spiritual urgency."

( Washington Post)

Tricking Dick

SEAN PENN, who's father was

Jewish, plays his first explicitly
Jewish part in the flick The
Assassination of Richard Nixon, open-
ing Jan. 21 in Detroit.
It's about the true story of a men-
tally ill Jewish man who attempted
to hijack a plane in 1974, with the
intention of crashing it into the
White House.

Banner Year

Jews picked up 7 out of the 12
Nobels awarded in 2004: a clean
sweep of the chemistry awards
(Israelis AARON CIECHANOVER
and AVRAM HERSKO, American
IRWIN ROSE); two out of three in
physics (Americans DAVID
POLITZER and DAVID J. GROSS;
one out of two in medicine
(American RICHARD AXEL); and
the literature prize (Austrian

ELFREIDE JELINEK).

PROGRAM (SUN 1/16)

Upside Down (1998) (Choreography by Ron Brown/Viusic by Sangare & Kuti)
Walking Out the Dark (2001) (31w/11/Sweet Honey in the Rock & others)

PROGRAM (MON 1/17)
Upside Down (1998) (3rown/Sangare & Kuti)
Come Ye (2003) (Blown/Nina Simone)
Grace (1999) (3rown/Ellington, Kuti & others)

Made possible in 1),Ift by Arts at Michigan. Funded in part by the National Dance Project of the New England

Foundation for the Arts. Presented in partnership ,Arith the U-M Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives
Partner, Detroit Jewish News, Michigan Radio/Michigan Television, WEMU 89.1 FM„)n.i Michigan Chronicle/Front

Page. This e;ent i paft of the

Nate Bloom is the California-based
editor ofwwvv.jewhoo.com

s \ NJ

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Re ■ . sir. ...art.111 Lathe Icing, Jr. )yriipostuln and 7. , le , ._elobratton

Lance.

All Tickets On Sale Now!

umS 734.764.2538 www.ums.org

.14 soov,

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outside the 734 area code, call toll-free 800.221.1229

IIIC mirbigan council for

arts and rulntral affilirs

1/1 3

2005

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