Arts & Entertainment
Holocaust Remembrance
PBS premiers new specials tied to the subject of the Shoah.
Imagine This
Professor David Roskies of the Jewish
Theological Seminary has written that
a little known poem, "Masada," by Isaac
Lamdan, "more than any other text inspired
the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto." A new
musical play, Imagine This, tells the incred-
ible story behind Roskies' quote.
Under the auspices of British director
Timothy Sheader, Imagine This opened in
London's West End in November 2008. Written
by Glenn Berenbeim with music by Shuki Levy
and lyrics by David Goldsmith, it tells the tale
of a group of actors in the Warsaw Ghetto who
struggle to keep the dream of freedom and the
will to resist alive among the prisoners of the
ghetto by performing the epic tale of Masada,
the ancient Judean mountain where 2,000
years ago a small band of courageous rebels
held 10,000 Roman soldiers at bay.
Even as their play merges with the reality
they are trying to escape, laughter finds a
way to rise above the tears and love manages
to transcend the boundaries of the ghetto
walls.
Among the Righteous
A new documentary, Among the Righteous:
Lost Stories from the Holocaust in Arab
Lands, chronicles one man's journey to chal-
lenge the problem of Holocaust denial in the
Arab world in the wake of 9-11.
Narrated by Robert MacNeil, Among the
Righteous is the story of Robert Satloff, head
of a respected Washington, D.C., policy cen-
ter, and his search to find an Arab, who in
the face of the German and fascist occupa-
tion of North Africa, took action to save his
Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust.
Among the Righteous chronicles Satloff's
eight-year and four-continent journey to
uncover situations that could change the
way Arabs view Jews, themselves and their
own history.
Over the course of his journey, Satloff not
only found the Arab heroes for whom he
was searching, but he also made surprising
discoveries about what really happened to
the half-million Jews of the Arab lands of
North Africa under Nazi, Vichy and fascist
rule. ❑
Worse Than War
With his first book, Hitler's Willing
Executioners, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
— then a professor of political science at
Harvard University — forced the world to
rethink some of its most deeply held beliefs
about the Holocaust.
A decade later — and more than half
a century after the end of World War II
— Goldhagen is convinced that the over-
all phenomenon of genocide is as poorly
understood as the Holocaust had once been.
Based on his book of the same title, Worse
Than War is the first documentary to step
back and focus on the general phenomenon
of genocide. It documents Goldhagen's trav-
els, teachings and interviews in nine coun-
tries around the world as he speaks with
victims, perpetrators, witnesses, politicians,
diplomats, historians, humanitarian aid
workers and journalists, all with the purpose
of explaining and understanding the critical
features of genocide and how to stop it.
In Rwanda, perpetrators of genocide
speak candidly about their participation in
mass murders; in Guatemala, Goldhagen
explores the concept of "overkill" with the
country's leading forensic pathologist; in
Bosnia, he attends the annual commemora-
tion of the massacre at Srebrenica, the worst
mass-killing in Europe since World War
II; in Ukraine, Goldhagen returns with his
father Erich (also a scholar of the Holocaust)
to the town where Erich was nearly killed
during the Holocaust.
A scene from Imagine This
Robert Satloff shakes hands with
Old Mohammed.
Daniel Jonah Goldhagen at a
prison work camp for confessed
genocide perpetrators outside
Kigali, Rwanda
Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News
42
At The Movies
Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Steve Carel!
Clif (The Office) star in Date Night as a
typical suburban couple whose lives
4:1) – including their weekly date nights
– have become routine. They try to
spice things up by visiting a trendy
Manhattan restau-
rant; while there,
a case of mistaken
identity leads them
to "take a walk on
the wild side."
A large supporting
cast includes James
James Franco
Franco, 31, and Mila
50
April 8 • 2010
JN
Kunis, 26. The director is Shawn
Levy, 41, who is best known for
directing the hit Night at the Museum
movies starring Ben Stiller. The film
opens Friday, April 9.
Tube Highlights
See Season 8
American Idol finalist
Adam Lambert, 28,
in a VH1 Unplugged
Adam
Lambert
performance 11 p.m.
Friday, April 9, as part
of the cable channel's
Friday Night Alright
series of concert
presentations from around the world.
The half-hour concert features acous-
tic versions of songs from Lambert's
debut album, For Your Entertainment.
Check VH1.com for encore showings.
The HBO dramatic series Treme
premieres 10 p.m. Sunday, April 11. The
series takes place three months after
Hurricane Katrina as the residents of
New Orleans try to rebuild their lives,
their homes and their unique culture.
Treme was co-created by David Simon
(The Wire, Homicide), 50.
Jer & Kath
Kathy Griffin is one of three celebs
appearing 10 p.m. Thursday, April 8,
on The Marriage Ref.
Produced by Jerry Seinfeld, the
show is a throwback to a more taste-
ful era: Three likable real-life married
couples present their minor marital
❑
Imagine This airs 9 p.m. Saturday,
April 10, on Detroit Public Television-
Channel 56.
Among The Righteous airs 10 p.m.
Monday, April 12, on Detroit Public
Television-Channel 56.
❑
Worse Than War airs 9 p.m.
Wednesday, April 14, on Detroit Public
Television-Channel 56.
dispute to the celebs
and the show's host
and get a ruling on
"who is right."
Griffin and Seinfeld
go way back. In the
early '90s, Griffin
had a small part on a
Jerry Seinfeld
Seinfeld episode and
asked Seinfeld to
sign an autograph. He was a bit surly
about it, and she used the incident in
her real-life standup routine.
Seinfeld liked being kidded, and
Griffin's character was brought back
in another Seinfeld episode, playing a
standup comic whose routine heavily
relied on describing Jerry Seinfeld as
a jerk.
❑