1. art and entertainment
2. shows and events
3. festival

Section
B
Lifestyles
2015
PAGE 2B
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
Top 25 events in Israel in 2015
By Abigail Klein
Leichman
No matter when you visit
Israel, you can be sure there
will be festivals and other special events on tap somewhere
in the country.
ISRAEL21c has chosen 25
events from March through
November (December warrants a separate listing), to
feature in our ultimate guide
to 2015 in Israel. It’s not an
exhaustive list, but it does
provide a glimpse into the
festive future. If you’ve got
other favorite events please
add them to our comments
below.
Dates are subject to change,
so do confirm ahead of time.
And because many happenings are announced only
weeks or days beforehand,
check tourism websites shortly beforehand for the most
updated information. Sounds
of the Old City, March 9-12
Musical bands and ensembles will perform authentic
music on central stages and in
the streets of Jerusalem’s Old
City quarters (Jewish, Muslim,
Armenian and Christian),
each matched to the character
of the quarter. Visitors will
follow a circular route from
the Jaffa Gate. Free entrance;
7-11p.m.
Fifth annual Jerusalem Winner Marathon,
March 13
Several different tracks
are available to runners and
hand-cyclers, from full marathon (42.2K) to 800 meters.
Some 2,500 participants are
expected from all over the
world. The full route takes
runners past the city’s most
prominent historical sites.
Eilat Birds Festival,
March 15-22
Organized by the Israel
Ornithological Center of the
Society for the Protection
of Nature in Israel, the Eilat
Birds Festival brings together
birders from the world over
during the peak of spring
migration in southern Israel.
Special packages are available
at the Isrotel Agamim Hotel,
which hosts the event now in
its ninth year.
International Clown
Festival, Netanya, March
18-20
Clowns from Israel and
other countries will offer
performances and workshops,
some for free.
Festival of Wine & Plenty,
Zichron Yaacov, March 25-26
In the picturesque Ramat
Hanadiv gardens, local wineries and producers of cheese,
olive oil, jams and baked
confections will offer tastings, workshops and cooking
demonstrations.
Ahava Dead Sea Festival,
April 5-8
For the 19th year, the Dead
Sea will be the setting for a
rock music festival that many
Israelis and tourists anticipate
all year long. In addition
to performances by Israel’s
top artists, guests may take
advantage of guided tours in
the area. If you’re more into
the indie alternative music
scene, head to Ashdod during
this same time period during
Passover to catch the famous
Boombamela Festival.
18th annual Stone in
the Galilee sculpting
symposium, MaalotTarshiha, April 5-8
Fourteen of Israel’s most
prominent sculptors are in-
vited to create art for public
spaces during this open-tothe-public event in the north,
allowing spectators to watch
the process from start to finish. There’ll be indoor exhibitions and dialogues as well.
Independence Day, April
22-23
From the night of April 22
through the night of April
23, Israelis will be celebrating
Yom Ha’atzmaut (Independence Day) with cookouts,
shows, fireworks displays and
other celebrations. If you’re in
Tel Aviv, check out the giant
fireworks display over Rabin
Square and the Israel Air Force
flyover above the shore.
Jacob’s Ladder Festival, May
14-16 and Dec. 4-5
Known as “Israel’s friendliest musical and social event,”
this twice-yearly bluegrass,
folk, country, blues, Irish and
world music extravaganza has
been taking place since 1976
on the grounds of Nof Ginosar
Hotel on Lake Kinneret (Sea
of Galilee).
Open House Tel Aviv,
May 14-16
One weekend a year, Tel
Aviv opens up private spaces
– designer lofts, urban villas,
unique synagogues, architecturally significant public
buildings, curious construction sites, plazas and gardens
– to the public to explore.
Check the website in April for
the complete schedule.
Israel Festival, May 1-31
The Israel Festival offers
professional performances by
Israeli and international artists in Jerusalem’s distinctive
venues. This 53rd year puts a
spotlight on local talent appearing at the Sultan’s Pool,
First Station, Israel Museum,
Jerusalem Theater, International Convention Center,
Hartman Institute, Gerard
Behar Center, YMCA and the
Ein Karem neighborhood.
Tel Aviv Jazz Festival,
May
Held at the Cinemateque,
Tel Aviv’s long-established
annual festival draws international performers and audiences as well as Israeli musicians. The festival emphasizes
a particular style or country
in each year, but always
covers the spectrum of jazz
from traditional to modern,
newcomers to veterans, and
encompasses jazz-influenced
world music and other genres.
Fifth annual Jerusalem
Light Festival, June 3-11
Dozens of light installations, displays, shows and
sales of one-of-a-kind lighting products will be featured
throughout the Old City from
8-11pm each night of the festival (except Friday; and from
9 to midnight on Saturday).
Free admission.
Israeli Opera Festival at
Masada, June 4-13
This year’s festival will
feature, for the first time,
two fully staged opera productions: Puccini’s Tosca
(June 4, 6, 11, 13) conducted
by Maestro Daniel Oren and
Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana
(June 5 and12) conducted by
James Judd.
White Night Festival, Tel
Aviv, June 25
This annual all-night arts
festival commemorates historic Tel Aviv’s awarding
of World Heritage Site status from UNESCO in 2003.
Concerts, fairs, workshops,
parties, tours, games, singalongs, storytelling, dining
specials – a full list of available
events will be posted on the
municipality’s website a few
weeks ahead of time so you
can plan out your night.
International Festival
of Puppet Theater and
Film, Holon, July 26-31
Featuring puppet makers
and artists from Israel and
around the world, this festival
has been held annually since
1995 at the Puppet Theater
Center in Holon. On the
schedule are plays, shows and
story-telling from Israel and
abroad; evening screenings
of feature films with puppets, documentaries about
puppeteers, TV shows and
commercials featuring puppets; exhibitions about theater
puppets and puppet artists; In
workshops and master classes
for adults and children. In the
plaza outside there will be free
street performances.
Karmiel Dance Festival,
July 28-30
About 5,000 dancers from
Israel and abroad annually
take part in more than 100
events and performances at
this huge annual festival in
Karmiel, a central Galilee town
between Acre (Akko) and Safed
(Tzfat). For folk-dance teachers
and enthusiasts from abroad,
there’ll be an Israeli folk dance
course given in English from
July 20-31, including sightseeing and admission to the
festival. Information: dbenshalom@013.net.il
Jaffa Nights, four Saturday nights in August
The streets of Old Jaffa are
closed to traffic and become
the scene of Israel’s largest
street festival for this fourweek extravaganza. Stages
and performance areas take
over the squares and lanes,
and some of Israel’s leading
performers put on free street
theater, concerts and artsand-crafts exhibitions. The
party often lasts until dawn.
40th annual Jerusalem International Arts
& Crafts Fair (Hutzot
Hayotzer), August 10-22
Look and buy: The handiworks of artists from Israel
and 30 countries around the
world will be displayed in the
artists’ colony near Sultan’s
Pool just outside the Old City
walls. Every night is capped by
a live concert by one of Israel’s
most celebrated performers.
It runs every evening from
6-11pm except Friday (and
after sundown Saturday). Entrance fee; special children’s
activities.
28th annual Klezmer
Festival, Safed, Aug.
18-20
Held in the mystical Galilee
city of Safed, this musical
event showcases dozens of
artists performing “Jewish
soul music” on eight stages
and in the ancient cobbled
alleyways of the city. Also: an
outdoor arts-and-crafts sale,
tours and children’s events.
Jerusalem Sacred Music
Festival, Sept. 1-4
This annual event brings
together international and
Israeli artists in performances
under the stars, opposite Jerusalem’s ancient walls and
in houses of prayer. Audiences
may take part in “A Night
Stroll” at the Tower of David,
comprising performances,
ceremonies and a series of
“Testimony Encounters”—
guided tours that trace the
sacred sounds that play yearround in Jerusalem.
Explore some of Tel Aviv’s most interesting buildings.
Omri Amsalem
An installation at Jaffa Gate lights up the Jerusalem night, as part of the Jerusalem
Light Festival.
FLASH90 photographer Isaac Harari snapped this shot during the Jerusalem Light
Festival in 2013.
Speedo Sea of Galilee
Swim, Sept. 19
About 12,000 swimmers
of all ages and nationalities
are expected at this largest
Israeli amateur sports event,
now in its 62nd year. Choose
between routes of 1.5 and 3.5
kilometers.
26. Haifa International
Film Festival, late September
Founded in 1983, this is
Israel’s oldest annual international film festival. Held
on Mount Carmel overlooking
the Mediterranean Sea, the
festival offers close to 300
screenings, many of which
are world premieres. Outdoor
events, workshops and film
competitions are part of the
festivities.
Other 2015 film festivals:
Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival in Tel
Aviv, May 7-16; Tel Aviv LGBT
Film Festival, June 6-15;
Cinema South Film Festival,
June 7-12 at the Sderot Cinemateque; Jerusalem Film
Festival, July 9-19; Spirit
Film Festival at the Tel Aviv
Cinemateque, Oct. 22-24.
Tel Aviv Furniture Exhibition, Oct. 11-17
If you love interior design,
you need to be at the annual
Furniture Exhibition at the
Tel Aviv Exhibition Center
to see the latest collections
of more than 120 Israeli and
international companies including Beitili, Hollandia, Ziv
Kitchens, Natuzzi, Nicoletti,
Dr. Gav, Aeroflex, Ultima, Simmons, Night Sleep, Etzmaleh,
House Inn and Zaga. For
the first time, the show will
provide a stage for companies
specializing in home styling,
accessories and styling various spaces in the home. Free
admission.
Tel Aviv Water Games,
Oct. 15-19
This inaugural international LGBT sporting event
and cultural festival will
welcome teams from around
the world competing in swimming, diving, rowing, beach
volleyball and other water
and waterside sports. Also
planned are sunset yoga and
acrobatics, bicycle tours of
the city and late-night celebrations.
Fifth annual Hula Valley
International Bird Festival, mid-November
Tens of thousands of migrating cranes descend on
the Agamon Hula Ornithology and Nature Park every
November, along with at least
200 other species of feathered friends – 500 million in
all—headed to their winter
homes in Africa from Europe
and Asia.
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
PAGE 3B
For ‘Aya,’ a long journey from Israel to the Oscars
By Anthony Weiss
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—The
idea for “Aya” began with a
daydream: What if you were
waiting for someone at the airport and instead you picked up
a total stranger? What then?
That wisp of a fantasy,
dreamed up by Mihal Brezis
many years ago while waiting
with a friend at Tel Aviv’s Ben
Gurion Airport, has carried
her and her partner, Oded Binnun, to an Oscar nomination
for best short film.
“This film keeps surprising
us with its journey,” Brezis, 37,
told JTA in advance of the 87th
Academy Awards ceremony
on Sunday.
She was sitting in a cafe
in Griffith Park here while
Binnun, 39, her co-director
and co-writer, was taking
their son, Nuri, on a pony
ride nearby.
“The most touching fact is
that we get to travel this far
with a film that is small and
intimate,” Brezis said.
“Aya,” as it exists, was
never even supposed to be
made. Brezis and Binnun
were working on a feature
film when a French producer
who had worked on their last
film called and told them he
had money to make another
short film. They told him they
had no short film ideas, but
ultimately decided to distill
part of their feature idea into
the short that became “Aya.”
At 39 minutes, however,
“Aya” is long for a short
film— so long that when it
first played at the Jerusalem
International Film Festival in
2012, the festival had to host a
special screening. Brezis and
Binnun invited their friends
and family assuming it would
be the only public screening of
the film. But a positive review
from the Israeli newspaper
Haaretz led to more screenings at Israeli cinematheques,
and then to a commercial
release in Israel.
Thanks to the Oscar nomination, “Aya” is now playing
with the other short film
nominees as part in more than
450 theaters across the United
States. (The other Oscar
contenders in the live action
short category are “Boogaloo
and Graham,” “Butter Lamp
(La Lampe au Beurre de Yak),”
“Parvaneh” and “The Phone
Call.”)
The film itself is deceptively
simple. The title character
(played by Sarah Adler) is a
young woman waiting for
someone at Ben Gurion Airport when a driver asks her
to hold his sign for a moment
welcoming a Mr. Overby to
a music competition. When
Overby (Ulrich Thomsen),
a Danish music researcher
and juror for the competition,
shows up, Aya decides on an
impulse to drive him to his hotel in Jerusalem. During the
course of the car ride, which
forms the majority of the
film, the ordinary boundaries between strangers break
down, and an unexpected
intimacy develops between
the spontaneous Aya and the
reserved Overby.
Unlike other recent Israeli Oscar nominees, there
is nothing obviously Israeli
about “Aya.” By contrast, the
feature films “Beaufort” and
“Waltz With Bashir” were set
amid Israel’s wars with its
neighbors; the social drama
“Ajami” took a panoramic look
at Israeli society, particularly
the fractures between Jewish
Israelis and Arabs; and the
father-son drama “Footnotes”
was about a complicated relationship between father and
son, both of whom teach in the
Talmud department at Hebrew
University. But “Aya” explores
neither the political, ethnic
nor religious aspects of Israeli
life. Even the dialogue itself
is almost entirely in English.
Cassis Films
Ulrich Thomsen and Sarah Adler star in the Oscar short film nominee “Aya.”
Brezis said that many people
in and out of Israel expect the
country’s films to be political,
and that she and Binnun (along
with co-writer Tom Shoval)
wondered whether they should
make the film more political,
more “Israeli.” But ultimately
they decided to remain true to
the heart of the story, which is
the encounter between the two
strangers.
“At the end of the day, I’m
happy we managed to keep it
this way,” Binnun said. “Audiences can see Israel as a place
where human connections
can happen.”
But she also argues that Aya
is a distinctly Israeli character.
“I do think it ref lects
something deep which is
Israeli— not following the
rules, being spontaneous, following the heart,” Brezis said.
Brezis and Binnun met
more than a dozen years ago
at Israel’s prestigious Sam
Spiegel Film and Television
School, and they have been
creative and romantic partners ever since, always writing
and directing together. Both
are natives of Jerusalem—
Brezis comes from a religious
family, while Binnun’s family
is more secular— but they
now live in Tel Aviv, the center
of the Israeli film and television industry.
The couple has now resumed developing the featurelength version of the “Aya”
story, and they hope that
with the success and acclaim
of “Aya,” they will be able to
secure financing to shoot
what would be their first
feature film.
In the meantime, even
though their film does not
set out to change the world,
they hope that Aya’s journey
can have its own impact,
however subtle.
Brezis said, “The vision we
set out is that when the lights
come up after the film, you feel
differently towards the person
sitting next to you.”
How to get the best travel deals in 2015
cupancy rate in 18 years this
past summer. Lots of space
to fill equates to discounted
hotel rooms. Add to this the
fact that Dubai’s new Al Maktoum International Airport is
gearing up for a $32 billion
expansion over the next decade, and it could mean 2015
is the right time to get ahead
of the crowds.
For more information and
deals to Travelzoo’s 2015 Wow
Deal Destinations visit www.
Travelzoo.com/Destinations/
wow2015.
If the experts have it right
again this year, Americans will
be able to save a small fortune
on travel to once-in-a-lifetime
destinations in 2015.
Why is this issue different
from all other issues?
Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau
Texas Hill Country is predicted to be a top deal destination in 2015 by Travelzoo.
(StatePoint) Looking to
get more out of your vacation
dollar? Before booking, take a
cue from the experts.
Each year, Travelzoo predicts where American travelers are likely to find the best
bang for their buck. Last year,
they correctly forecast how
European river cruises would
offer tremendous value in
2014. This year they are highlighting five new destinations,
including Texas Hill Country.
“Our 2015 prediction offers
an eclectic mix of destinations, but all have a common
theme: increased infrastructure and competition, which
means deals, deals, deals for
the American traveler,” says
Gabe Saglie, senior editor for
Travelzoo. From Asia’s tantalizing
cities to the vibrant colors of
Rio de Janeiro, here is where
Travelzoo says Americans can
score a terrific deal in the
coming year:
Texas Hill Country
The downtown landscapes
of Austin and San Antonio are
transforming at light-speed as
visitors, businesses and new
residents continue to flock to
the two cities. To meet this demand, nearly a half-dozen new
hotels are set to open in 2015,
including properties from JW
Marriott, Kimpton and Westin.
Brazil
Brazil had a great year in
2014 when hosting the World
Cup, and the country has
more to look forward to when
it hosts the 2016 Olympics. All that investment in infrastructure will put pressure on
domestic travel companies to
entice international travelers
to the region. Expect to see
some great discounts on hotels -- including 400 new properties that will be operational
before the Olympics. Travelers
from Florida can also take
advantage of the increased
competition generated from
new airline routes to Brazil.
Cruising Asia
China might not seem like
an obvious choice for cruising, but Shanghai has poured
serious money into cruising
infrastructure; including the
Wusongkou International
Cruise Terminal, which can
handle the world’s largest
ships. As a result, cruise lines
are adding new ships and
itineraries throughout Asia,
including China, Indonesia,
Japan, Malaysia, Singapore,
South Korea, Sri Lanka, the
Philippines and Thailand. Royal Caribbean International is even moving its newest
ship, “Quantum of the Seas,”
to Shanghai. As cruise lines
compete to fill their cabins,
expect to see more deals.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico has long appealed to American travelers:
no U.S. passports are required
to visit, English is spoken and
the U.S. dollar is accepted. Thanks to new routes and
increased services from airports around the U.S. in recent
months (from JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines), flights to Puerto Rico
are now among the cheapest
in the Caribbean. Travelzoo
anticipates this trend will
continue in 2015.
Dubai
Despite a huge hotel expansion to support the upcoming
World Expo in 2020, Dubai
experienced its lowest oc-
It's Big • It's Colorful
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March 27, 2015
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PAGE 4B
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
America’s secret 2015 foodie destinations
(BPT)—With their incredible restaurants seemingly appearing overnight, cities such
as Brooklyn and Portland have
long since been discovered as
foodie destinations. If you want
coal-fired pizza ovens, craft
beer or artisan doughnuts, you
only have to stroll down the
street a few blocks. But while
these destinations have been
basking in the limelight, other
cities across America have
been transforming their food
scenes to much less fanfare. If
you’re searching for the mod
craft cocktail bar, the boatto-table seafood or the next
big thing in fusion cuisine,
DreamPlanGo suggests picking up a fork in these cities:
• Providence, Rhode Island.
No one is sure who coined the
phrase “boat-to-table,” but
Providence does it right. Many
up-and-coming restaurants
have fish delivered daily from
the docks to their tables. If you
are looking for an exquisite cre-
ation with Italian, Portuguese
or simply New England roots,
Providence will serve you up in
style. Save a special corner of
your stomach for Providence’s
fabulous hole-in-the-wall
cafes and tucked away bars.
In discrete, sometimes rougharound-the-edges locations,
you’ll find the burgers, pizza
and beer that sustains locals
whether they are out sunning
on the patio or hunkered down
for a gale. And, while it makes
some people shudder, you can’t
leave town until you sample
the residents take on pizza - its
grilled, not baked.
• Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Better known for hot dish
and General Mills products,
the Mill City actually has a
lot of new food going for it.
Sure you’ll find things like
artisan SPAM bites tucked onto
menus, but you’ll also be able
to sample fresh grilled walleye
pulled from a lake near you,
delicious Minnesota-grown
produce, wood-fired pizza,
local craft beer and mouthwatering French pastries. Food
trucks have also taken the
city by storm with everything
from burritos to lobster rolls.
If you are looking for Asian
and Southeast Asian cuisine
in particular, neighboring St.
Paul has an enormous collection of authentic, inexpensive
and just plain delicious familyrun restaurants.
• Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Santa Fe doesn’t have the
big-name restaurants, but that
suits the locals just fine. Santa
Fe has always been known for
its homey and rich southwestern cuisine, which you can still
enjoy in abundance. When you
are being served, waiters will
ask whether you want red,
green or Christmas referring
to the color of the chili sauce
you want placed on your order.
However, many new restaurants are subverting these old
favorites to make them lighter
and airier. Instead of heavy
sauces, you’ll find cuisine being served with delicate infusions of southwestern flavor.
Many chefs are blending the
flavors they’ve grown up on
with influences from Mexico,
France and the Mediterranean.
The result is a delicious collection of Southwest fare prepared
in new and innovative ways.
• Memphis, Tennessee.
Memphis is legendary for its
barbecue, which you can enjoy
everywhere from honky-tonks
to famous restaurants. With an
exquisite plate of ribs before
you, you may be tempted to
look no further, but Memphis
also has an amazing collection
of up-and-coming restaurants that showcase some of
the South’s other best food
traditions. Be sure to try New
Orleans-style redfish, succulent Lowcountry shrimp and
grits and delicious servings of
hominy, succotash and other
Southern favorites.
• Las Vegas, Nevada. While
everyone was busy gambling
away the 1990s and early
2000s, Las Vegas was slowly
developing a chef-driven food
scene. If you don’t mind paying top dollar, you can have an
incredible meal in Vegas. Fresh
seafood, premier sushi, heritage meats, caviar - it can all
be found here. But be warned,
Las Vegas does have a dearth
of neighborhood restaurants,
farm-to-table operations and
farmers markets.
• Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is rightly famed for
its coastal fine dining, so be
sure to sample scallops, crabs,
shrimp and redfish while you
are in town. In Savannah,
bounty from local producers is
transformed to dishes served
everywhere from your local
neighborhood cafe to the upand-coming downtown bistro.
• San Diego, California. So.
Cal’s foodie up-and-comer has
the market cornered on amazing fish tacos. Set right against
the Mexican border and the Pacific Ocean, inspiration flows
both from the South and the
sea. San Diego’s warm climate
helps small farms thrive and
you can be sure that restaurants are taking advantage of
the locally sourced meat and
produce that have become the
mainstay of trendy new dining.
• Portland, Maine. Not to
be confused with its western
counterpart, Portland, Maine
has a formidable food scene
bolstered by its close proximity to fresh seafood and its
long history of farm-to-table
dining. Sample the town’s microbrews while exploring the
cobblestone Old Port. Dig in
to slow-foods movement creations and sample the Maine
lobsters that encourage diners
to return again and again to
the seacoast.
• Durham, North Carolina. Southern Living called
Durham the “South’s Tastiest
Town,” so you’ve got to bring
your appetite and check out the
city’s new foodie appeal. Served
to you in the city’s old tobacco
warehouses or on roaming
food carts you’ll find exquisite
pies, fresh doughnuts, artisan
coffee and elevated casual fare
that will make you never want
to go back to your old greasy
hamburger joint again.
• Traverse City, Michigan.
Downtown Traverse City’s
restaurant boom is in part due
to the growth of local wineries.
When you visit, you’ll have to
divide your time between good
food, wine and the beach. What
could be better? Like so many
foodie areas, Traverse City
takes it local. You’ll be dining
on locally grown cherries and
apples, foraged morel mushrooms and fish pulled right
from Lake Michigan.
Traveling abroad to satisfy your food cravings? Visit
DreamPlanGo.com to find
Europe’s 2015 Foodie Destinations.
Take a hike: Enjoying the
great outdoors year-round
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(StatePoint) Just because
the weather is cooler, doesn’t
mean it’s time to hibernate.
With the proper equipment,
preparation and motivation,
any time of year is the perfect
time to get outdoors for an
adventure. And you don’t have
to look far for a great hike.
Across the country, there are
59 gorgeous National Parks
and thousands of state parks
to choose from, comprising
tens of thousands of miles
of trails.
Hitting the trail this season? Make sure you’re wellequipped to handle whatever
comes your way.
• Footwear: Your regular
running shoes may serve you
well on a gentle slope in the
warmer months, but in cool
weather at high altitudes, different precipitation and terrain
may require something sturdier, more insulated and definitely waterproof. Check the
weather report and conditions
of the trail before you go and
outfit your feet accordingly.
• Hydration: Don’t be fooled
into thinking that staying
hydrated is not important in
cooler weather. As always,
carry more water than you
think you may need in case of
emergency.
If you’re hiking in more
extreme weather conditions,
you may need an insulated
water bottle to handle the temperature. Look for options that
are easy to carry and open so
you don’t need to remove your
gloves to quench your thirst.
• Fuel: Whether you’re hitting the trail for a leisurely
afternoon jaunt or you’re
powering through a challenging climb, hiking burns
calories, especially in colder
weather, when your body expends energy trying to restore
its natural body temperature.
Staying fueled is important.
Pack snacks that are high in
energy, easy to eat and won’t
weigh you down, such as trail
mix or granola bars.
• Useful tools: Whether
you’re an experienced adventurer or a weekend warrior,
the tools you choose should be
well-designed to handle your
pursuits and enhance your
experience.
Check out Casio’s PRO
TREK line of rugged, stylish Triple Sensor watches
which are engineered for the
outdoors. Features include
Tough Solar Power, altimeter/
barometer, digital compass
and thermometer (Triple
Sensor Technology), water
resistance, low temperature
resistance, daily alarms, a stopwatch and more, making them
well-suited for climbs, hikes,
kayaking and camping. The
latest PRO TREK timepiece,
the PRW6000, keeps track of
sudden swings in atmospheric
pressure, which can help alert
users to the possibility of
changing weather conditions.
More information can be found
at www.PROTREK.Casio.com.
• First Aid: Even quick hikes
require a basic first aid kit. Be
prepared with bandages, antibiotic ointment, antiseptic,
splinter removal tools and
basic medication.
There’s nothing like exploring the beauty of nature
year-round. Just be sure to do
so safely and wisely. By getting
prepped with innovative tools
and basic equipment, you can
relax and enjoy the hike.
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
PAGE 5B
Food and wine pairing tips
for sinner parties
(StatePoint) One of the
most important aspects of
entertaining is sometimes
overlooked—proper pairing
of the food and wine. Even
if you have a bottle of top
quality wine and an amazing
chef-inspired dish, without
considering how the food and
drink combine, you can ruin
the taste of both, say experts.
O n e c om m o n l y m i s matched wine is Cabernet
Sauvignon. “I have a simple goal with
food and wine pairings: don’t
mess with the taste of the
wine,” says Dean Busquaert,
a wine educator at Sequoia
Grove Winery, a pioneering
Cabernet Sauvignon producer
in the heart of Rutherford in
Napa Valley.
Bold, full-flavored reds
like Cabernet Sauvignon will
overpower light dishes, but
are excellent when served
with rich meats like a roast,
making them perfect for big,
hearty meals. Busquaert,
who often shares his pairing wisdom at the Sequoia
Grove tasting room, offers
some invaluable pairing tips
for home cooks planning to
serve a Cabernet Sauvignon
at their festivities.
• The number one thing to
avoid pairing with Cabernet
Sauvignon is sugar, which will
throw off the tannin balance
of the wine and make it seem
astringent and bitter. For
example, many people think
chocolates pair well with red
wine, however, they don’t—
unless it is a port which has
residual sugar.
Sugar content, whether
it comes from fruits like
grapes or apples, or honey
and chocolate, is simply not
a good choice for Cabernet
Sauvignon.
• To make a Cabernet Sauvignon taste more velvety, pair
it to dishes high in acidity. For
example, adding a splash of
lemon to a dish can smooth
out a big and structured Cabernet Sauvignon.
• Don’t be fooled by conventional wisdom. Some rules do
not apply across the board.
“Most people think red wine
always goes with red meat,
only to discover a dish like
beef teriyaki, which contains
sugar, can make a beautiful
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon seem undrinkable,” says
Busquaert.
• Use salt liberally to bring
out the full flavor in foods,
without throwing off the
flavors of your wine.
• A great meal deserves
a great wine, and the Napa
Valley has come to define
great Cabernet Sauvignon in
America. Look for established
and trusted producers, such as
Sequoia Grove Winery, with
a history of making quality
balanced and food-friendly
wines.
Knowledge is crucial to the
appreciation and enjoyment
of fine wine. Join Busquaert
for his “A Taste for Cabernet”
seminar at the winery and
learn for yourself how to
best match food with Cabernet Sauvignon. Visit www.
sequoiagrove.com/visitus for
more information.
Food pairings are an essential ingredient to a successful
dinner party. Don’t overlook
this important element when
planning your menu.
(c) Megan Steffen
Grilled filet mignon with braised garden greens and Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon.
AN EVENT SETTING
FOR EVERY SIMCHA.
No matter what you’re celebrating, Rosen Plaza Hotel offers friendly, award-winning service,
elegant presentations, custom menus and talented master chefs to enhance any event.
And we welcome you to host your next celebration with us.
Specializing in:
• Jewish Weddings
• Bar & Bat Mitzvahs
• Seder Meals
• Showers
• Reunions
• Rehearsal Dinners
• Corporate Functions
Email RPcatering@RosenPlaza.com or call 407.966.9700 for more information or to plan your next event.
9700 International Drive | Orlando, Florida 32819
RosenPlaza.com
PAGE 6B
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
Oscar winner ‘Ida’ traces void left by Poland’s murdered Jews
Opus Film
Agata Kulesza, left, and Agata Trzebuchowska co-star in the Polish film “Ida,” an Oscar
nominee for Best Foreign Language Film about an aunt and niece looking for family lost
in the Holocaust.
By Anthony Weiss
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—
For the past few decades,
Holocaust films have been
common—and often victorious—fare at the Academy
Awards.
But this year, the Polish
nominee in the Foreign
Language Film categor y
v e n t u r e s i n t o t h e le s s
frequently explored ter-
ritory of the Holocaust’s
aftermath.
“Ida,” writer-director Pawel
Pawlikowki’s stark black-andwhite film, is an unsparing
look at the discomfiting void
left behind after the obliteration of Poland’s Jews.
Set in 1962 Poland, the film
tells the story of Ida, a young
Catholic novitiate living a life
of simple devotion at a rural
monastery as she prepares
to take her vows as a nun.
But the rhythm and ritual of
her life is disrupted when she
learns that she must visit her
previously absent aunt before
she can be initiated. Against
her will, and wearing her habit
like armor, Ida journeys to
Warsaw.
The aunt, Wanda Gruz,
is the diametric opposite
of Anna—a worldly, disillusioned Stalinist now devoid
of faith of any kind. From
the start, Wanda cannot
resist taunting Ida for her
piety and innocence. For
Wanda, life is pain, leavened
by alcohol, cigarettes, music
and an anonymous parade
of men. She is also Jewish—and so, she reveals, is
Anna, born Ida Lebenstein,
whose family was killed in
the Holocaust.
Almost despite themselves,
Ida and Wanda find that
they share a mutual affection, and Wanda agrees to
take her niece to search for
the remains of their family.
The contrast between the
traveling companions could
not be more stark. Passing a
roadside shrine, Ida stops to
kneel and pray while Wanda
lounges against the car smoking. Reaching a village, Ida
goes to the church, Wanda
to the bar.
What they find is a Poland
determined not to remember
or to care. From the occupier
of the family’s old house they
meet hostile denial. From
villagers in the family’s old
hometown they meet shrugs
and blank stares. In a hitchhiking young sa xophone
player they find the drifting,
sensuous pursuit of whatever
comes next.
But Ida and Wanda also
force one another to confront
things with which they, too,
have failed to reckon. For all
her disapproval of Wanda, Ida
cannot fail to see all that the
larger world offers. And Wanda, in her growing connection
with Ida, is forced to excavate
long-buried memories, loves
and agonizing losses.
Of all the movie’s great
voids, perhaps none is greater
than Judaism itself. For
Ida, the discovery that she
is Jewish is an odd, almost
incomprehensible piece of
trivia, one of the few threads
tying her to a past she never
knew. Wanda, twisted by pain
and grief, neither seeks nor
desires any connection with
Jewish life. She is a modern
communist, devoted to the
party but stripped of belief
in anything but the perfidy
of man.
Yet these two wounded vessels are the sole Jews in the
film. Beyond them there
is nothing. No rabbi, no
community, no culture, no
memory— only an abandoned
graveyard.
Given this, it is little surprise that “Ida,” like its
characters, has an uneasy
relationship with Poland.
The film has been widely
hailed as a masterpiece and
lavished with critical praise
and awards, including Best
Foreign Language Film from
the British Academy of Film
and Television Arts. But it
has also met with criticism
from Polish nationalist groups
that have accused the film of
tarring Poland with the sins
of the Nazi invaders.
Pawlikowski is himself a
singular figure in the world
of Polish filmmaking. He
has spent much of his adult
life working in London, only
recently returning to his native Warsaw. In discussing
his filmmaking influences
on “Ida,” the director has
cited not Polish but French
filmmakers such as Jean-Luc
Goddard and Robert Bresson,
and critics have likened Pawlikowski’s minimalist style to
the Japanese director Yashujiro Ozu.
Pawlikowski also shares
another element with his
characters, namely a Jewish
past. His father’s mother was
Jewish and was murdered at
Auschwitz. Like Ida, Pawlikowski didn’t learn this history until he was an adult. His
father, an avowed secularist,
never discussed it.
“Everyone talks of it as
being about Jewish-Polish
relations,” Pawlikowski told
the Guardian newspaper last
year. “I don’t want to step
into that minefield. For me,
the film is about what it is to
be Polish.”
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ing visual to accompany the
feast by creating a thematic
“tablescape.”
The experts at Bed Bath
& Beyond are offering three
ideas for elevating your entertaining décor:
Rustic Living
A warm, woodsy vibe invites
lingering conversation. Skip
the tablecloth and add a burlap
runner and rattan placemats
in rich neutral hues to create
a foundation of textures. Bring
in some warmth using soft
green moss centerpieces and
the sleek glitter of champagne
flutes.
Mix shapes to give the table
a casual, welcoming feel. For
2:42 PM
example, for a rectangular
table, use round placemats
with square plates. Likewise,
use centerpieces of varied
heights, such as glass candle
holders of different sizes accented with rope and filled
with moss. Add tall branches
to the moss for a dramatic
touch.
Consider Lenox Park City
A rustic living table setting creates an warm, inviting atmosphere.
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






Coldwell





 Banker

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 
Paulakotzinrealtor@gmail.com
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flatware and china. The porcelain plates are decorated with
delicate bare branches and
the flatware’s design mimics
tree bark.
Remember, little details
go a long way. Add sprigs of
rosemary to Champagne for
an evergreen feel and flavor.
Glamorous Gold
To create an opulent look,
think rich colors, vivid patterns and one of the hottest
tabletop trends this season—gold.
When opting for a formal
setting, avoid mixing shapes
and limit your color palette.
From placemats to china, repeat soft curves for an overall
unified effect. Use a showstopping place setting that
creates richness and visual
depth, such as Wedgwood’s
Renaissance Gold, which pairs
gold with cobalt blue. Mirror
these colors with your other
table accessories.
Use soft touches to keep the
look from feeling cold, such
as lush roses in full bloom or
ferns spray painted gold for a
pretty finishing touch.
Winter Wonderland
Bring the best parts of a wintery walk through the woods
into your dining room—no
shoveling required.
Use a lightly golden tablecloth, dotted with silver metallic snowflakes. Reinforce
with platinum-and-white
place settings and top with
a silver snowflake napkin
ring.
Use faux snow to create a
“runner” of snow drifts down
the table center, dotting it
with real evergreen sprigs to
create a natural-looking trail
between the diners.
Include a hint of metallic
shine with silver placemats.
Crystal votive holders and
mounds of real ice in the
champagne bucket add to the
table’s sparkle.
To keep our snowy scene
from feeling too chilly, add
Champagne flutes with rich
golden accents, and the warm
glow of candlelight.
More ideas, decorating tips,
recipes, printable décor, playlists and inspiration can be
found at the “Above & Beyond”
blog at blog.bedbathandbeyond.com.
At your next dinner party,
wow your guests and set the
mood for your feast with tablescapes that please the eye.
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
PAGE 7B
What to do over the weekend in Jerusalem
By Abigail Klein
Leichman
ISRAEL21c—When planning weekend activities in
Israel, the first thing to bear
in mind is that the weekend
is Friday and Saturday. In Jerusalem, Thursday nights and
Friday mornings are prime
time for leisure and touring
activities as the Israeli work
week winds down. Nightlife on
Friday nights (for those who
are not observing the Jewish
Shabbat) and Saturday nights
is more abundant than most
people imagine.
While many Jerusalem
shops, eateries and attractions – as well as the entire
public transportation system
– do shut between sundown
Friday and sundown Saturday,
more and more venues remain
open if you know where to
find them. And on Saturday
nights, everyone’s back out
in force.
Want to join locals at the
trendiest weekend venues?
We’ve got a suggested itinerary from Elisheva Mazya, CEO
of the nonprofit New Spirit organization; and Karen Brunwasser, deputy director of the
Jerusalem Season of Culture.
The fun starts Thursday
night
One of Jerusalem’s liveliest
places on Thursday nights is
the Machane Yehuda marketplace, better known as “the
Shuk.”
Soak up the unique culture
of the marketplace by navigating among the hordes of
shoppers filling granny carts
with fresh produce, fish, meat,
spices, candy, nuts, baked
goods and condiments for
their Sabbath feasts. Get free
or almost-free samples from
vendors such as the Halva
King, Pereg spice shop and
Uzi-Eli the Yemenite juice/
medicine man. Around 9 p.m.,
vendors drastically reduce
prices on produce and baked
goods until the next morning’s shipment comes in.
If you want to do more than
people-watch and shop, Mazya
suggests Tahrir, a Middle Eastern dance bar on Ha’afarsek 17
within the Shuk. “Thursday
and Saturday nights it’s a
big scene where young, hip,
religious and non-religious
people are dancing on the
tables to Arabic music,” says
Mazya.
Zion Square and the Ben
Yehuda pedestrian mall, down
Jaffa Road from the Shuk,
are packed with partiers on
Thursday nights. The little
artsy shops on Yoel Solomon
Street, just off the square, stay
open till around 11pm, while
many bars and cafés are busy
into the wee hours.
If you’re craving cholent
– the traditional meat-andbean stew usually served for
Sabbath lunch – buy a plate
Thursday night in the ultraOrthodox Me’ah She’arim
neighborhood. Mazya says
cholent-tasting has become
a thing with late-night revelers, but make sure you’re
appropriately dressed for this
conservative neighborhood.
In the mood for live music?
Follow the crowds to Thursday
night shows at the Yellow Submarine in Talpiot or Zappa on
Hevron Road. For laughs,
book a Thursday night show
(always in English) at Off the
Wall Comedy Club near the
center of town.
Friday happenings
Start with a classic bursting-at-t he-sea ms Israeli
breakfast at the café-bookstore Tmol Shilshom (off Yoel
Solomon Street) or at just
about any hotel, restaurant
or café.
Some eateries offer lavish
all-you-can-eat buffets on
Fridays till closing time; try
Café Rimon at 4 Lunz Street
near the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall.
Every Friday from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m., handmade wares
are on sale at the Bezalel
arts-and-crafts street fair
between Bezalel Street and
Shmuel HaNagid Street, next
to the old home of the Bezalel
Academy of Arts and Design.
Brunwasswer recommends
this as a good alternative to
touristy gift shops.
Stroll through the Alrov
Mamilla Avenue shopping
center, the German Colony
along Emek Refaim Street,
the Old City or the Haas and
Sherover promenades in East
Talpiot/Arnona. Go hiking in
the Jerusalem Forest or catch
a Segway tour.
At the First Station culture
and leisure venue, the advent
of Shabbat is welcomed with
a free, pluralistic sing- and
dance-along every Friday
afternoon at 5 p.m. from May
through September.
For a more traditional
Kabbalat Shabbat, head to
the Western Wall to join the
throngs of worshippers, and
you may just get an impromptu Shabbat dinner invitation.
If classic cantorial music is
your style, go to services at
the Great Synagogue.
For Friday night drinks,
Mazya recommends the Gatsby Cocktail Bar at 18 Hillel
Street, designed like a Prohibition-era American speakeasy.
“When you go in the no-name
black door, you see a library
and that opens onto a ‘secret’
bar where they serve unique
cocktails. There’s also a room
for smokers, which is rare,”
says Mazya.
If you prefer a more cosmopolitan atmosphere with
a spectacular view, try the
Rooftop wine and cheese bar
atop the Notre Dame Church
or the Cellar Bar at the American Colony Hotel.
Some of the trendiest places
for Friday night dining (not
kosher) are the Aza 40 bistro,
Mona and Satya in Rehavia,
The Workshop near the First
Station and Turquoise (Lebanese cuisine) on the roof of
St. George Landmark Hotel
in East Jerusalem.
End your evening with a
first-run or foreign film at the
Jerusalem Cinemateque or
Lev Smadar Cinema in the
German Colony.
Saturday in Jerusalem
With no buses or light rail
running through the city, and
many fewer cars than usual,
Saturdays in Jerusalem offer a quieter atmosphere for
everyone to enjoy.
Mazya likes to start her
day with eggs Benedict at the
new French bistro Menza on
Bezalel 10. Brunwasser favors
the hipster café Bet Haqawe at
Yannai 3.
Every Saturday, the Jerusalem municipality sponsors
free walking tours with English-speaking licensed guides
in 20 of the city’s most iconic
areas. Other English walking
tours are offered by the Yad
Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute and
the Abraham Hostel.
In the village-y Ein Karem
neighborhood, nearly everything is open on Saturdays,
including its many historic
churches, artisan workshops
and little stores such as the
Sweet N’ Karem chocolate
shop.
The Ramparts Walk around
the Old City is a great way to
get a perspective high above
the ancient walls, beginning
from the Tower of David
Museum on Friday, Saturday
and Sunday.
Other popular Saturday
destinations are the Bloomfield Science Museum, the
Israel Museum, Rockefeller
Archeological Museum, the
Jerusalem Botanical Gardens and the Biblical Zoo.
Jerusalem weather is beautiful almost year-round, so
Saturdays are great for playing, walking, biking or jogging. Visit the new Train
Track Park, a walking and
cycling promenade stretching
between The First Station and
Beit Safafa. Teddy Park, Sacher Park and Independence
Park are great choices for a
family picnic.
Once the stars come out
on Saturday night, Jerusalem
comes fully alive again with
cultural and culinary activities. Check the municipality’s
tourism site for updated
events.
Abigail Klein Leichman is
a writer and associate editor
at ISRAEL21c. Prior to moving to Israel in 2007, she was
a specialty writer and copy
editor at a daily newspaper in
New Jersey and has freelanced
for a variety of newspapers and
periodicals since 1984.
Produce is fresh and abundant in the Shuk.
Shoppers throng to the Bezalel street fair.
Segway riders zoom through Train Track Park.
Miriam Alster/FLASH90
Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90
The Great Synagogue in Jerusalem.
Walk atop the Old City ramparts for a unique viewpoint.
FLASH90
PAGE 8B
HERITAGE FLORIDA JEWISH NEWS, FEBRUARY 27, 2015
Book Reviews
A good book can transport
its reader away to distant
lands or to a time in the past
or future. It can bring out
passionate feelings, peak one’s
curiousity or scare the living
daylights out of its reader. In
any case, curling up in a comfy
chair with a good book is a
wonderful way to spend free
time. Here are some books
The Heritage chose to review.
‘The Messiahs of Princep
Street’
by Moshe Elias
a novel
published by Writersworld
United Kingdom—The sun
is setting on Britain’s Empire.
On December 8,1941 Japan
attacks Singapore; the island
surrenders ten weeks later and
Churchill calls it the worst disaster and largest capitulation
in British military history.
Adam Messiah is born
into a modest Jewish home.
Japan occupies the island for
three and half years and he is
interned with his family. The
Jews are the only local people
imprisoned as a whole community. Why this happened
became apparent only after
the war ended: the Holocaust
and German presence during
the Occupation were common
knowledge.
“The Messiahs” is the
story of a boy growing up
with a father who gets all his
answers from the Bible until
the early hours of that fateful
December morning. He lives
in a shop house with Indian
and Chinese neighbours and
sees the war, the British disregard for the population, the
retreat and final defeat, played
out on the pavement outside
his house. Then, a few days
later, he witnesses Japanese
brutality in the street itself.
Princep Street is Singapore
in miniature—a many-cultured, multi-faceted outpost
of the Empire. Adam’s father
lives in his memories and
wants his son to grow in his
image; but in the internment
camp, where they are separated for the first time, Adam
seeks answers elsewhere.
When his father dies a few
years later, his ghost is never
further away than his son’s
elbow. Adam’s pattern for
life and love has been set; he
cannot shake off his nurturing
and stumbles into unhappiness. To discover where he
went wrong, he stitches together a few stories of his life
and, as he writes, he takes the
reader into a small, dwindling
community living in a melting pot of people as diverse as
anywhere on earth, at a time
when the world is profoundly
changing.
About the author
Moshe Elias was born and
lived half his life within the
Jewish community of Singapore; he spent the other half
in India, Scotland, England
and Israel. As a wandering
Jew he finds much happiness
wherever he lives.
In Singapore he served as a
youth and community leader;
worked in government as it
progressed from colony to
self-rule and independence;
he also practiced as a naval
architect, managed a shipyard, fitted kitchens, taught
English and worked as a sous
chef. He now lives in London.
‘Moral Agents: Eight
Twentieth-Century
American Writers’
Edward Mendelson Biography
published by New York
Review Books
release date: March
2015
A deeply considered and
provocative new look at major
American writers—including
Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer,
and W.H. Auden—Edward
Mendelson’s “Moral Agents”
is also a work of critical biography in the great tradition
of Plutarch, Samuel Johnson,
and Emerson. Any important
writer, in Mendelson’s view,
writes in response to an
idea of the good life that is
inseparable from the life the
writer lives.
Fusing biography and criticism and based on extensive new research, Moral
Agents presents challenging
new portraits of eight writers—novelists, critics, and
poets—who transformed
American literature in the
turbulent twentieth century.
Eight sharply distinctive individuals—inspired, troubled,
hugely ambitious—who reimagined what it means to be
a writer.
There’s Saul Bellow, a
novelist determined to rule
as a patriarch, who, having
been neglected by his father,
in turn neglected his son in
favor of young writers who
presented themselves as
his literary heirs. Norman
Mailer’s extraordinary ambition, suppressed insecurity,
and renegade metaphysics
muddled the novels through
which he hoped to change
the world, yet these same
qualities endowed him with an
uncanny sensitivity and deep
sympathy to the pathologies
of American life that make
him an unequaled political
reporter. William Maxwell
wrote sad tales of small-town
life and surrounded himself
with a coterie of worshipful admirers. As a powerful
editor at The New Yorker, he
exercised an enormous and
constraining influence on
American fiction that is still
felt today.
Preeminent among the
critics is Lionel Trilling, whose
Liberal Imagination made
him a celebrity sage of the
anxiously tranquilized 1950s,
even as his calculated image
of Olympian reserve masked
a deeply conflicted life and
contributed to his ultimately
despairing worldview. Dwight
Macdonald, by contrast, was
a haute-WASP anarchist and
aesthete driven by an exuber-
ant moral commitment, in a
time of cautious mediocrity,
to doing the right thing. Alfred
Kazin, from a poor Jewish
émigré background, remained
an outsider at the center of
literary New York, driven both
to escape from and do justice
to the deepest meanings of his
Jewish heritage.
Perhaps most intriguing
are the two poets, W.H. Auden
and Frank O’Hara. Early in his
career, Auden was tempted to
don the mantle of the poet as
prophet, but after his move
from England to America he
lived and wrote in a spirit of
modesty and charity born
out of a deeply idiosyncratic
understanding of Christianity. O’Hara, tireless partygoer
and pioneering curator at
MoMA, wrote much of his
poetry for private occasions.
Its lasting power has proven
to be something different from
its avant-garde reputation:
personal warmth, individuality, rootedness in ancient
traditions, and openness to
the world.
About the author
Edward Mendelson is the
Lionel Trilling professor in
the Humanities at Columbia
University and the literary
executor of the Estate of W. H.
Auden. His books include “The
Things That Matter”—about
seven novels by Mary Shelley,
Charlotte and Emily Brontë,
George Eliot, and Virginia
Woolf—and Early Auden and
Later Auden. He has edited
novels by Arnold Bennett,
Thomas Hardy, George Meredith, Anthony Trollope, and
H. G. Wells, and has written
for The New York Review of
Books, The Times Literary
Supplement, the London
Review of Books, The New
York Times Book Review, The
New Republic, and many other
publications.
“A Legacy”
by Sybille Bedford,
introduction by Brenda
Wineapple
literary classic
published by New York
Review Books
release date: March
2015.
“A Legacy” is the tale of
two very different families,
the Merzes and the Feldens.
The Jewish Merzes are longstanding members of Berlin’s
haute bourgeoisie who count a
friend of Goethe among their
distinguished ancestors. Not
that this proud legacy means
much of anything to them
anymore. Secure in their
huge town house, they devote
themselves to little more than
enjoying their comforts and
ensuring their wealth. The
Feldens are landed aristocracy, well off but not rich,
from Germany’s Catholic
south. After Julius von Felden
marries Melanie Merz the fortunes of the two families will
be strangely, indeed fatally,
entwined.
Set during the run-up to
World War I, a time of weirdly
mingled complacency and
angst, A Legacy is captivating, magnificently funny, and
profound, an unforgettable
image of a doomed way of life.
About the authors
Sybille Bedford (1911–
2006) was born Sybille von
Schoenebeck in Charlottenburg, Germany, to an aristocratic German father and
a partly Jewish, British-born
mother. Raised variously in
Germany, Italy, France, and
England, she lived with her
mother and Italian stepfather
after her father’s death when
she was seven, and was educated privately. Encouraged
by Aldous Huxley, Bedford
began writing fiction at the
age of 16 and went on to publish four novels, all influenced
by her itinerant childhood
among the European aristocracy. She married Walter
Bedford in 1935 and lived
briefly in America during
World War II, before returning
to England. She was a prolific
travel writer, the author of a
two-volume biography of her
friend Aldous Huxley, and
a legal journalist, covering
nearly one hundred trials.
In 1981 she was awarded the
Order of the British Empire.
Brenda Wineapple’s books
include “Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise,” 1848–1877 and “White
Heat: The Friendship of Emily
Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson,” a finalist
for the National Book Critics
Circle Award. The recipient
of a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a
2014 Literature Award from
the American Academy of
Arts and Letters, Wineapple
lives in New York City with
her husband, the composer
Michael Dellaira.