-
Home
- Art & Culture
Art & Culture
- Details
- Written by Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center to Mark Jerusalem Day with Special Moriah Films' Clip
In commemoration of Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) this upcoming Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Moriah Films is proudly featuring a
clip from its acclaimed documentary, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers, when Jerusalem was victoriously reunified in June, 1967.
This year marks 54 years since the Israeli army overcame Jordanian forces to capture the Old City of Jerusalem and reclaim the holiest site in Judaism, the Western Wall.
.“The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers” can be streamed via iTunes and GooglePlay:
https://vimeo.com/420478013/400da98135
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/the-prime-ministers-the-pioneers/id1367365502
GooglePlay: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=The%20Prime%20Ministers%3A%20The%20Pioneers&c=movies&hl=en_US
www.moriahfilms.com/film-library/the-prime-ministers-the.html
The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers
Featuring the voices of Sandra Bullock, Michael Douglas, Leonard Nimoy and Christoph Waltz
The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers focuses on 1947 and 1973 when Ambassador Avner worked with Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir and (then) US Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin.
The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers, is the 13th release by Moriah Films, the Academy Award®-winning documentary filmmaking division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Based on the best-selling book by Ambassador Yehuda Avner, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers takes the audience inside the offices of Israel’s Prime Ministers through the eyes of an insider, Yehuda Avner, who served as a chief aide, English language note-taker and speechwriter to Levi Eshkol, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, Menachem Begin, and Shimon Peres.
The first of two parts, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers focuses on Ambassador Avner’s years working with Prime Ministers Levi Eshkol and Golda Meir and then US Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin and reveals new details about the Six-Day War, the development of Israel’s close strategic relationship with the United States, the fight against terrorism and the Yom Kippur War and its aftermath.
Weaving a rich tapestry of history and personal testimonies, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers brings some of the most important events of the 20th and 21st centuries to life. Starring the voices of Sandra Bullock as Golda Meir, Michael Douglas as Yitzhak Rabin, Leonard Nimoy as Levi Eshkol and Christoph Waltz as Menachem Begin, The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers is written, produced and directed by Academy Award®-winner Richard Trank and co-written and produced by two-time Academy Award®-winner Rabbi Marvin Hier. Grammy and Emmy winner Lee Holdridge composed and conducted the films’ original score.
www.instagram.com/moriahfilms/
www.instagram.com/simonwiesenthalcenter/
twitter.com/moriahfilms
Photo and Video courtesy by the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Museum of Tolerance
- Details
- Written by Tel Aviv University
Google and Tel Aviv University launch 'AI for Social Good' - a program promoting beneficial multidisciplinary research in Artificial Intelligence
Ø The program aims to support research and collaborations in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence that can contribute to major social issues faced by humanity today.
Google and Tel Aviv University recently launched a program for promoting AI-related multidisciplinary research for the benefit of society. The program aims to support research and collaborations in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, that can advance humanity by addressing focal social issues on the global agenda. It was launched within the framework of TAD, the TAU Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, established in February and headed by Prof. Meir Feder of the Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering.
The three-year program was launched at a recent ceremony at TAU, announcing 10 winners - out of 27 proposals submitted in response to TAU and Google's joint call. Seven of the winning projects are supported by Google. The grant winners, whose projects address different aspects of AI for Social Good, include researchers from a wide range of disciplines: Zoology (Faculty of Life Sciences), Electrical Engineering, Economics, Statistics, Communication Disorders, Biblical Studies, Earth Sciences and Computer Science, Sociology and Anthropology and more.
TAU President Prof. Ariel Porat, who aims to establish 'bridges' between the different disciplines studied at TAU, said at the ceremony: "I share a common vision with Prof. Yossi Matias. We believe that AI researchers can benefit significantly from collaborations with researchers in the social sciences and humanities, just as the latter benefit from new developments in AI. I am very happy about our partnership with Google. I look forward to seeing its fruits and hope to expand it further in the future."
Prof. Yossi Matias, VP at Google and Managing Director of Google Center in Israel, spoke of AI technologies and how they are already improving our lives dramatically: "AI already has great impact in various areas. We are delighted for this opportunity to harness the power of AI for social good and for science. Google is especially happy about its work on beneficial and even lifesaving products, such as the worldwide project for accurate flood forecasting, a technology enabling the hearing-impaired to conduct phone conversations, and studies on the use of AI to enhance disease diagnosis."
Prof. Matias thanked Prof. Porat, Prof. Meir Feder, Head of the TAD Center, and all other partners in the initiative. He spoke of the special opportunity to generate collaborations between researchers, and noted that he is a great believer in connections between different disciplines. "There are some deep and fascinating research questions associated with AI in many different disciplines, creating substantial opportunities for collaboration. Good things happen when different ideas and different approaches come together."
The joint venture will include a joint seminar on Machine Learning (ML), led by TAD Director Dr. Shimon (Moni) Shahar and Dr. Deborah Cohen, a scientist at the new Google Center in Israel.
Prof. Meir Feder emphasized that "the AI revolution is expected to impact every aspect of our lives, from drug development and data-based personalized medicine, to defense systems, financial systems, scientific discoveries, robotics, autonomous systems and social issues. In addition, it is very important to train human capital in this area, and therefore the Center will provide every student at TAU with a basic AI education. TAU is special in having researchers who specialize in basic science and AI, as well as researchers who apply AI in the humanities and social sciences. We are happy that Google has decided to join forces with TAU in this important matter. The collaboration with Google will enable utilization of the power of AI and Data Science, channeling it toward the benefit of society."
Image:
(Left to Right): Prof. Yossi Matias, Prof. Ariel Porat, Prof. Meir Feder & Prof. Tova Milo (The Dean of the Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University).
Credit Photo: Tel Aviv University.
- Details
- Written by Silvia
President of Israel Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin today, Friday 2 April / 20 Nissan, sent a letter to His Holiness Pope Francis I for Easter, wishing the Holy Father and Christians around the world his greetings for the holy days of Easter.
President Rivlin’s letter in full:
“Your Holiness,
From Jerusalem, the city of G-d, I send you my warm greetings for the holy days of Easter.
Unfortunately, this is now the second year that we celebrate our holy days under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic has proved conclusively that the borders between countries area artificial, as the sickness does not differentiate between nations or between the followers of different religions.
I believe this has reinforced our awareness of the importance of cooperation, of the values of brotherhood, humanity, mutual trust and help. We are proud that our vaccination operation here in Israel reaches all the residents of our country, followers of all faiths and to members of all communities.
We are also cooperating with our neighbors in the region, the Palestinians and while we are emphasizing that our lives are shared together.
The Abraham Accords bring a lot of hope and a special opportunity for an era of peace, stability and cooperation to our region, and I hope our Palestinian neighbors would seize this unique opportunity as well.
Your Holiness, may I say how much I valued the message you sent, via the pilot, as you flew over Israel on the way to your visit in Iraq, last month. May the gift of G-d for harmony and peace will reach all.
And finally, as my term as president comes to and end soon, I hope we will have an opportunity to meet once again to reiterate my commitment to the connections of Israel and the Holy See to the freedom of religion in the Holy Land and to the advancement of the Land of Monasteries project.
Please accept, Your Holiness, the assurance of my highest considerations.”
Copy of President Rivlin’s letter to the Pope
President photo credit Silvia Golan ( from 28 November 2018)
- Details
- Written by Silvia G. Golan
Tel Aviv Museum of Art will present the first-ever retrospective in Israel of renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama
Ranked one of the ten biggest and best art exhibitions opening in 2021 around the world, an extensive retrospective of Kusama’s work will arrive at Tel Aviv Museum of Art in November.
The exhibition will be presented at TAMA thanks to a collaboration with Studio Kusama in Tokyo and the Gropius Bau in Berlin, one of Europe’s most important exhibitions venues, where it opens this week. Another extensive exhibition of the artist’s work has opened recently in New York’s botanical garden.
Tel Aviv Museum of Art will present the first-ever retrospective in Israel of renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929), one of the most important contemporary living artists.
The monumental exhibition will offer an overview of Kusama’s main creative periods over the past 70 years, with some 200 works and four Infinity Rooms (unique mirror installations) – including several new works realized for the first time. Spanning almost 3,000 m² across the Museum’s two buildings, in six galleries, the scale of the exhibition is unparalleled.
Yayoi Kusama is among the world’s most popular artists, and can be considered a “global brand” herself. Even in her nineties, her looks are unforgettable: red wigs, witch’s hats, sorcerer’s robes,and polka-dot clothing have become synonymous with the Japanese artist. Kusama is the most-tagged artist in social media and her work is uniquely suited for our Instagram and selfie age. Hundreds of thousands of people photograph themselves in her unique installations and share the results under hashtags like #YayoiKusama or #InfiniteKusama. Celebrities like Katy Perry or Adele even preformed inside her artworks.
Kusama is well known for her commercial collaborations with luxury brands. Her partnership with Louis Vuitton in 2012 dramatically increased awareness of her work and her personal narrative.
Kusama’s works are exhibited around the world in leading museums, galleries and public spaces, enjoying wide press coverage. A major retrospective of her work traveled in 2011 and 2012 to the Whitney Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. In addition, she has had large-scale solo exhibitions in Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan and Chile, among others. In the past seven years, more than five-million museum visitors have queued for a brief glimpse of (and selfie with) the work of Yayoi Kusama.
The exhibition in Israel is curated by Dr. Stephanie Rosenthal, Director of Gropius Bau, and Suzanne Landau, former Director and Chief Curator of TAMA.
Tania Coen-Uzzielli, Director of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art: “We are proud to host this extensive retrospective of Yayoi Kusama’s work. Particularly now, in the post Covid-19 period with all its difficulties, the public thirsts for exciting quality experiences. The presentation of this monumental exhibition in Israel, in collaboration with other museums around the world, will allow the Israeli public to enjoy a unique international cultural event. The first-ever retrospective in Israel of this renowned Japanese artist will continue to establish Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s standing as one of the foremost art venues in the world.”
Suzanne Landau, curator of the exhibition: “The art of 92-year-old Yayoi Kusama, which thrills millions of people around the world, encompasses drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, performance, cinema, and fashion. Her entire oeuvre is mesmerizingly powerful, impressive and pleasurable at the same time. The presentation of her retrospective at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is definitely a unique event of historic magnitude.”
https://m.facebook.com/tamuseum/
@tamuseum
https://instagram.com/telavivmuseumofart
@telavivmuseumofart
Photo PR
@tamuseum
- Details
- Written by Maccabi World Union
Dear Friends,
We are already in the Hebrew month of Nisan, preparing our hearts and souls for the arrival of the Festivity with greater activities for the whole family: Pesach, the Jewish people’s Festival of Freedom from the yoke imposed by the Ancient Egyptians 3,300 years ago. Pesach’s celebration takes 7 days (7 + 1 in the Diaspora), which have as their main distinction the consumption of matzah and the prohibition of chametz, and, of course, the family gathering around the table and the reading of the Passover Haggadah, the story of the freedom of Egypt during the Seder of Passover.
We also read, on the Shabbat of Passover, the biblical book of Shir Hashirim, The Song of Songs. The reason our exegetes – traditional Bible commentators – teach us for this reading during Passover lies in two verses of that biblical book: the first verse refers to spring - Passover also being Chag HaAviv, the Spring Festival; the second one, evokes the departure from Egypt - the central motif of Pesach, Chag HaCherut.
The Song of Songs is the quintessential book of love for the Jewish people, narrating, in a vivid, poetic and moving way, the love and passion relationship between a man and a woman - with powerful images and descriptions of that love. If someone did not know that The Song of Songs is part of the Bible sanctified by the Sages of Israel, and read it for the first time, s/he would think that it is an ancient secular work of supreme and even erotic love. Surprisingly it was our Sages those who decided to include The Song of Songs as part of the Guiding Book of all the West, the Hebrew Bible, explaining that the loving characters of Shir HaShirim are God himself - the bridegroom - and the people of Israel – His bride... making Shir HaShirim's story an allegory in its entirety.
Researchers wondered how such a book of human love - with such detailed expressions of love between man and woman - was included among the other Holy Books of the Bible; how is it that a book that has the most human love as its central theme - and owner of phrases of high sensual content - could have made "a place" among the books of Psalms, Proverbs and others. The researchers' response is surprising because of its relevance: The Song of Songs was included in the Bible ... by popular outcry. The Children of Israel adored the 8 chapters of that book of love - and it was they who "demanded" its inclusion in the Hebrew Bible that would be the Road Map of the Jewish people - and of the entire West Civilization. Yes: our Sages explained the Song of Songs as an allegory of the deep, loving, meaningful and eternal bond between the Creator and the Bride that He chose for Himself - the Jewish people ... and, with this, our ancestors saw fulfilled their need to include the theme of human love in their Master Book - since the totality of human experience cannot be explained without organically including the theme of love, the most powerful feeling that links us to one another. The Morals of the West had to include Love - which so often sustains everything.
Love is the basis of Divine Creation. Love is, in immeasurable examples, the inspiration of human creation in the arts, music, literature, cinematography - sometimes romanticized and infantilized, sometimes respected and justly exalted. It is a fundamental part of the fulfillment of each one of us, human beings; that base that allows to establish strong families, consolidated marriages, memorable friendships for a lifetime, and gatherings of human beings through common causes. Love is a living and positive force, indispensable for the functioning of the whole society. The creators of contemporary music transmitted this to us with simplicity and forcefulness: John Lennon said that "All you need is love", to which Paul McCartney added: "And, in the end / the love you take / is equal to the love you make.”
In this year in which we were deprived of our loving hugs on so many occasions due to the forced confinement of the disastrous pandemic, we suffered more than ever the absence of that love that heals so much and cures so much. Pesach reminds us that its central value, the Freedom of a people, occurred within the framework of the love between God and our people liberated through Divine Love – we, who must learn to bond through love with each other to arrive at what is most sublime of our goals. That is the message of the Song of Songs and the one we need so much these days, where we begin to meet again with those we love in a warm and deep hug of solidarity.
May this Seder and all our future Seders be celebrated in times of liberation and redemption of our People and of all men and women of good deeds!
May God give us inspiration to respond with responsibly to the calls of Freedom.
And May God awards us to have a Passover of many gatherings, many hugs, a lot of family, a lot of love... and that all Humanity is freed from the challenge of this pandemic.
Chag Pessach Sameach!
Chazak ve'Ematz!
Rabbi Carlos A. Tapiero
Deputy Director-General & Director of Education
Maccabi World Union
Photo courtesy Rabbi Carlos A. Tapiero
