Jewish Music Feted
RABAT — Jewish music will be the focus of an annual Moroccan music festival. Matrouz, the Moroccan Jewish musical tradition, will be featured at the festival Oct. 29-Nov. 1 in the port city of Essaouira, AFP reported. The concerts will bring together “our poets, our musicians and our singers, Muslims and Jews, to sing and dance together,” Andre Azoulay, festival chairman and an adviser to King Mohammed VI, said.
UJC Changes Name
NEW YORK — The board of trustees of the United Jewish Communities officially voted to change the name of the umbrella organization of the Jewish federation system to the Jewish Federations of North America, from the United Jewish Communities (UJC). The group – which represents 157 federations and 400 independent “network communities” across the continent – is also adopting a new logo.
Chabad Goes Halal
SYDNEY — A Chabad Lubavitch-run kosher community kitchen that feeds the needy gained halal certification, making it acceptable to observant Muslims. Our Big Kitchen in Sydney, Australia, run by the Yeshiva Center, became halal last week in the presence of New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees, who learned to make challah on his visit. Sophie Abuta, a Palestinian Australian whose husband donated tiles for the kitchen, said she hoped it will help Jews and Palestinians “cook our way to peace.” The kitchen, founded by Brooklyn-born Rabbi Dovid Slavin in 2007, has been visited by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Gov.-Gen. Quentin Bryce and other dignitaries.
France Showcases Israeli Artists
PARIS — Israeli artists are being showcased throughout France in honour of Tel Aviv’s 100th birthday.
From theatre to painting, poetry and architecture, hundreds of works by Israeli and Tel Aviv artists are on display in France’s largest cities this month and through early December. Both Paris and Tel Aviv helped organize the events. The two cities “have co-operated actively,” the city of Paris said in a statement, and this fall’s cultural events are “meant to honour that friendship.”
The International City of Arts in Paris launched an exhibit last week on the unique modern architecture of Tel Aviv, in a show titled The White City. From Nov. 4 to Dec. 6, films illustrating life in Tel Aviv will be shown in Paris’ Forum of Images. Filmmaker Eytan Fox and actress Gila Almagor will be among those given special recognition.
A French-translated version of the classic play Yaacobi and Leidental, by Tel Aviv playwright Hanokh Levin, is among several Israeli arts performances currently in theatres. Works by internationally recognized artists Michal Rovner and Sigalit Landau, and sculptor Ruth Adler, have also been on display throughout the French capital. Israeli films are also being screened in Toulouse, Marseille, Cannes and Montpellier.