Jewniverse Articles Archive - Page 40 of 174

Remixing Iraqi Jewish Music

Not many people still collect mix tapes. Especially the kind that feature a hammered dulcimer, violins, and the strumming of an oud. Then again, not many people have the rare footage and original recordings that have been collected and curated by Regine Basha. Basha is a second-generation Iraqi Jew and she grew up listening to […]

By Abby Sher

A 1963 French Detective Holocaust Novel Gets a New Life

A little remembered 1963 French detective novel by Hubert Monteilhet—Return from the Ashes—puts forth a fascinating scenario: a Jewish woman, presumed dead, returns to her hometown in France after being liberated from Dachau. Facially disfigured to the point of unrecognizability, she subtly reinserts herself into her husband’s life—a man with designs on her substantial […]

Why Indiana Jones’ Nazi-Loving Enemy Said a Torah Prayer

Listen carefully to the words of Nazi sympathizer René Belloq, Indiana Jones’ archnemesis, in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark just before he opens the Ark of the Covenant. Dressed in the garb of the Biblical High Priest, Belloq recites the following incantation: La al enash rachitzna, v’la al bar elohin samichna…d’hu […]