London’s Bevis Marks Synagogue, which marks its 300th anniversary this week, was one of only a few buildings in its east-end neighbourhood to emerge unscathed from the Nazi bombing blitz of World War Two. Twice rattled by IRA bombs intended for nearby targets, the elegant brown-brick building still stands proudly in its tiny protective courtyard.…
Travel in the post-9/11 era
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In some way, being on a modern jet aircraft is like riding a magic carpet from the Arabian Nights. No matter how often I fly, I always retain a sense of awe and wonder about the essentially miraculous process of jet travel. Have you ever wondered how Leif Erikson, Marco Polo or Christopher Columbus might…
A Jewish homeland on Grand Island, 1825
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Manuel Mordecai Noah, an American Jew born in Philadelphia in 1785, did much world travelling in his day — he visited Europe numerous times and was the US consul to Tunis — but it is perhaps the tale surrounding his travels from New York City to the upper reaches of New York State in 1825…
In the Yucatan, Mayan temples and Spanish conquistadors
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“The main thing to remember,” said Pepe, our Mexican guide, “is that the Mayans believed in reincarnation. They believed that unless they fed the sun every morning it would not rise.” High on a promontory overlooking Mexico’s Yucatan coast, Tulum is the only temple the Mayans built by the sea. Considered holy ground, it was…
Profile: Honest Ed Mirvish (2001)
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If this year is anything like previous years, the sun will be shining when “Honest” Ed Mirvish, Toronto’s legendary salesman and theatre impresario, hosts a mammoth street party on Sunday July 22 in celebration of his 87th birthday, offering free refreshments and entertainment to as many as 60,000 people over a seven-hour period. The party…
Merida, a Roman retirement community in Spain
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Merida, a city of 41,000 inhabitants in the Spanish province of Estremadura, boasts the most spectacular Roman ruins in Spain and an outstanding museum in which many impressive ancient treasures are housed. One’s introduction to the National Museum of Roman Art in Merida is the town itself. Merida was founded in 25 BC and named…
Obit: Frank Marsh (2001)
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Frank Marsh was born in Lamaline, a remote coastal village in Newfoundland, and came to touch the lives of many people in Ontario, and even in distant India, by dint of his professional vision and dedication. A rural school-teacher who founded Newfoundland’s Eastern College and then became the province’s assistant deputy minister of education, Marsh…
Review: Sourcebook for Jewish Genealogies and Family Histories
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Sourcebook for Jewish Genealogies and Family Histories, by David. S. Zubatsky and Irwin M. Brent, is an updated edition, with substantial additions, of a two-volume bibliographic reference tool for genealogists that was published years ago. The revised work, published 1996, offers more than 22,000 entries pertaining to some 12,000 family names, culled from a variety of…
Hester Street, still great after 35 years
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It has been 35 years since Joan Micklin Silver’s film Hester Street first appeared on the silver screen. Although the slow-paced, 90-minute black-and-white drama is not as well known as Crossing Delancey, which Silver directed more than a decade later, I regard the earlier film as the more pure work of art. A minor classic,…
An encounter with David Cronenberg
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Twenty years ago this summer (i.e., the summer of 1974) this reporter was a 20-year-old film student at York University, who had been lucky enough to find some meager employment as a pre-production assistant for a $180,000-budget feature film being shot in Montreal. The working title was Orgy of the Blood Parasites, the director was…
