Dayenu makes it a decade
February 28, 2010 by J-Wire Staff
Dayenu had no problem selecting a theme for this year’s Mardi Gras…it was their 10th anniversary. Read more
Mar-02 Melbourne: Costco open Kosher LePesach section
February 28, 2010 by Community Editor
Melbourne’s Costco store’s Kosher LePesach section to be opened by Israel’s Ambassador Yuval Rotem. Read more
Pesach prices plummet!
February 28, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
Melbourne’s Costco store will sell Kosher LePesach merchandise for rock-bottom prices. Read more
Jewish Care launches appeal
February 28, 2010 by Jonny Ucko
Melbourne’s Jewish Care has launched its 2010 appeal. Read more
Mar-25 Sydney: Klezmer Connection
February 28, 2010 by Community Editor
Yiddish and Gypsy music performed by Fay Sussman and her band… Read more
Mar-01 Ness Ziona, Israel: Commemoration of a memorial to fallen NZ soldiers
February 28, 2010 by Community Editor
The New Zealand ambassador to Israel and the New Zealand Minister for Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, will attend the commemoration. Read more
New Zealand Foreign Minister en route to Israel
February 27, 2010 by Agencies
New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully heads to the Middle East on Friday for a five-day visit to Egypt, Israel, Ramallah (in the occupied Palestinian territories), and Turkey. Read more
Australian passports used in Dubai killing
February 25, 2010 by J-Wire
Israel’s ambassador Yuval Rotem was summoned to FOreign Minister Stephen Smith’s office following the announcement in Dubai that three Australian passports had been used by the team which assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month. Read more
First grand final of 2010 to Maccabi
February 25, 2010 by Odile Faludi - Maccabi NSW
In the first Grand Final of 2010, the Maccabi Rockets have defeated the Cheetahs Free Ballers in the NSW Men’s Basketball Division 5 competition. Read more
A simcha in Israel
Not sure how to organise a simcha in Israel? Nanci and Stephen Schwartz can help. Read more
Zentai appeals to the HRC
February 23, 2010 by J-Wire
Lawyers acting for Charles Zentai, the Perth man facing extradition to Hungary to face questioning about the 1944 death of a Jewish youth in Budapest, have appealed to the Human Rights Commission to “safeguard their client’s rights”. Read more
Government White Paper on counter-terrorism gets ECAJ tick
February 23, 2010 by J-Wire Staff
The President of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Robert Goot, has welcomed the Australian government’s latest white paper on counter-terrorism. Read more
Israeli-born artist and Maitland Cemetery
February 22, 2010 by J-Wire Staff
Hanna Kay’s paintings of the Jewish cemetery in Maitland are currently being exhibited in Moree before being shown in Melbourne next month. Read more
Around the Kosher world
February 22, 2010 by J-Wire Staff
Last week Egypt and Venezuela, this week Hungary and India…Sydney’s Great Synagogue explores the world of Jewish food. Read more
Baby Minyan at the Great
February 22, 2010 by Susan Bures
Ten babies had their first taste of shule community at Sydney’s Great Synagogue’s Mazal Tot Shabbat. Read more
Feldstein New York bound
February 21, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
Jack Feldstein is a Sydney-based film-maker specialising in animated movies using a neon process. He is heading to New York. Read more
Holly Torah
February 21, 2010 by J-Wire
Reader Marc Schneider points to a somewhat tenuous result in the snow-boarding event at the Winter Olympics. Read more
Short+Sweet to present controversial play
February 21, 2010 by J-Wire
7 Jewish Children, the British play produced in Melbourne last year under a cloud of controversy, will be performed at Sydney’s NIDA’s theatre this week. Read more
Shutter Island ***
February 19, 2010 by J-Wire
Spoiler Alert: Although every effort has been made to limit the revelations in this review, it’s difficult to provide a coherent discussion of Shutter Island without giving away something, so readers are hereby placed on alert. If you’re familiar with the book, however, there’s no reason to stop here…
What’s wrong with Shutter Island? This has been the question ever since Paramount Pictures elected to move the Martin Scorsese-directed thriller from its comfortable pre-Oscar position to the wastelands of February. It turns out that there’s nothing wrong with Shutter Island – except perhaps that it’s not Oscar worthy material. An atmospheric mind-twister of a thriller, this movie delights in playing games with the audience’s perceptions and has been crafted with such competence that it rises above the somewhat generic storyline that forms the basis of Dennis Lehane’s novel. The strength of the film, like the book, is that it never allows the viewer to feel comfortable with what he is watching. That’s because Shutter Island is presented from the perspective of an unreliable narrator and, as such, the lines between fantasy and reality sometimes blur so strongly that it’s easy to become unanchored in trying to distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t. A case can be made that the movie is so enamored with this aspect of its approach that it fails to connect on an emotional level. Shutter Island addresses some powerful, disturbing concepts but, despite effective performances by the leads, the movie’s psychological impact is minimal. It doesn’t pack the powerhouse punch one has come to expect from Scorsese. Still, the director’s consummate skill has lifted what might otherwise be a middling endeavor into something compellingly watchable. It’s another Cape Fear.
Melanie and Vladamir appeal to UIA women
February 19, 2010 by Agencies
The New South Wales Women’s Division has reported highly successful functions featuring UK journalist Melanie Philips and Russian émigré Vladamir Milner. Read more
3 Legends rock for Yeshiva
February 19, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
Sydney’s community was treated to a night of Chassidic entertainment with a dose of Aussie country and western thrown in for good measure. Read more
Court told Gray supplied with heroin
February 18, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
22-yr-old Sherryn Davis did not appear in court today to answer charges that she supplied heroin to former Socceroo Maccabi footbal coach Ian Gray causing his death. Read more
Melbourne’s Glen Eira Villas officially opened
February 18, 2010 by Jonny Ucko
Victorian Premier John Brumby has officially opened Glen Eira Villas, Jewish Care’s newest housing development for people with a disability. Read more
Valentine’s Day **
February 18, 2010 by Agencies
It is possible to gather a star-studded ensemble cast and make a frothy, delightful movie about love in its many guises. Richard Curtis did it with Love, Actually and a parcel of international directors accomplished something similar with the duet of Paris, Je t’aime and New York, I Love You. The strengths of those films, however – the ability to tell interesting stories and generate substantive characters despite limited screen time – are absent here. Valentine’s Day’s greatest strength – its cast – becomes its most obvious weakness. With so many actors fighting for a few extra minutes in front of the camera, this feels like a parade of famous faces, not a motion picture. And, while a few of the skits show glimmers of promise, many are time wasters.
Crazy Heart ***
February 18, 2010 by J-Wire
Crazy Heart is the country music version of The Wrestler: a grizzled veteran whose days in the spotlight are behind him struggles to keep going while seeing the world through a haze of regret and booze. The story is unremarkable; the alcoholic coming to terms with an addiction and striving to overcome it has provided the framework for everything from compelling cinema to maudlin made-for-TV movies. What elevates Crazy Heartis the remarkable performance of Jeff Bridges. The Oscar buzz about Bridges, which began to build slowly before reaching a critical mass when Fox Searchlight decided to go to bat for him, is driving this production. Not to take anything away from Bridges’ co-star, Maggie Gyllenhaal, or supporting performers Robert Duvall and Colin Farrell, but everything that is compelling about Crazy Heart is filtered through Bridges. He, more than the story or the direction of first-time filmmaker Scott Cooper or T-Bone Burnett’s country/western songs, is the reason to set aside two hours to watch this.
The Hurt Locker ***+
War is hell. It’s a cliché, but not one that Hollywood often embraces. There are exceptions, of course, like Oliver Stone’s Platoon, which takes no prisoners in depicting war as the gruesome, dehumanizing business it is. But Platoon and other films cut from the same cloth are more dramas than thrillers. The question is whether it’s possible to generate white-knuckle, grip-the-edge-of-the-seat tension in a war movie without turning it into a glorification of violence and bloodshed. Director Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron’s ex and the filmmaker behind Point Break and Strange Days, answers this question with a definitive, uncompromising “yes!” On a weekend when the effects-choked Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen staggers into theaters like a stoned 800-pound gorilla and threatens to put audiences to sleep with its brand of deadly dull “action,” The Hurt Locker is the film to see for those seeking an elevated pulse. It’s 20 minutes shorter and about three times more exciting.
Woman charged following the death of Ian Gray
February 17, 2010 by J-Wire
A 22-yr-old woman has been charged with manslaughter, supplying a prohibited drug and stealing. Read more
Westfield meets forecast
February 17, 2010 by J-Wire Staff
Westfield chiefs, Steven and Peter and Lowy havee announced the company has achieved its forecast in results released today. Read more
Maccabi football coach Ian Gray dead at 46
February 17, 2010 by Henry Benjamin
Police are treating the death of popular Maccabi NSW Maccabi soccer coach Ian Gray as suspicious. Read more
Learning to grow old
February 17, 2010 by J-Wire Staff
The Burger Centre held a seminar on ‘Ageing and how to delay it’ in their Randwick centre in Sydney. Read more
