Jewish Advocate | Cara Hogan | October 9, 2009
Dr. Ruth stresses intimacy
Although Dr. Ruth Westheimer is known for her bold discussion of sexual issues, she revealed a romantic side in a talk with 300 of her Boston fans as she stressed the importance of intimacy and love.
“Peace in the home is not just the sex act, it’s really the relationship,” said Westheimer in an appearance last week at Boston’s Temple Israel. “It says in the Jewish tradition, speak to her softly so she will want to engage in sex. The sages were wonderful sex therapists.”
Westheimer talked about sex in the Jewish tradition and in modern life as part of a speakers series sponsored by the New Center for Arts and Culture. She was interviewed by Ted Reinstein, a reporter for WCVB-TV’s “Chronicle,” and took writeen questions from the audience, which ranged from college students to senior citizens.
Westheimer, who is 81, spoke fondly about her early years in Germany growing up in a clase family and attending an Orthodox school and synagogue. At age 10, as Nazi persecution intensified, she was evacuated with other JEwish children. She eurvived the war in a Swiss orphanage, but the rest of her family perished in the Holocaust.
Boston Globe | Meredith Goldstein | October 1, 2009
Sex Talk with Dr. Ruth
Sex therapist Ruth Westheimer is happy to be Jewish for a number of reasons. Not surprisingly, one of those reasons has to do with sex. “I do believe that for me, being Jewish, it is easier to talk about sex openly. . . . In the Jewish tradition having intercourse with your spouse on a Friday night - it’s a good deed.’’ Westheimer - best known as Dr. Ruth - will go into detail about all of this tonight when she leads a talk called “Heavenly Sex’’ for the New Center for Arts and Culture.
Jewish Advocate | Cara Hogan | September 25, 2009
Dr. Ruth to chat about Judaism and sex
Dr. Ruth Westheimer says being Jewish helps her feel more comfortable talking about sex.
“The Jewish attitude towards sex is very open,” said Westheimer, who will appear at a New Center LIVE! event on Oct. 1. She will speak about her boo, “Heavenly Sex: Sexuality in the Jewish Tradition.”
In the Jewish tradition, sex has never been a sin; it always has been a mitzvah to be engaged in between a husband and a wife,” said Westheimer.
Westheimer will speak at Temple Israel in Boston as part of a conversation with Ted Reinstein, a reporter and producer for WCVB-TV’s Chronicle. She is the first of three speakers in a series sponsored by the New Center for Arts and Culture. Author Bruce Feiler (”America’s Prophet: Moses and the American Story”) appears on Nov. 3 and Congressman Barney Frank on Dec. 1.
The Boston Globe | Michael Paulson | 03.29.2009
That’s funny? Jews in New Yorker cartoons
New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff tonight (3/24) is kicking off a New Center For Arts and Culture series with a talk on cartoons about Judaism. He was featured in Saturday's Globe talking generally about cartooning, but for the religion blog, I wanted to hear more about his thoughts about making fun of Jews, so I gave him a call:
Q: What distinguishes cartoons about Jews?
A: There aren’t very many cartoons about Jews. If you look back at the history of the New Yorker, you will see, especially in the '20s and '30s, when New York was changing, there were a number of, shall we say, interesting cartoons showing that change. I don't think the cartoons were anti-Semitic, but they would perhaps be looked at now in that way -- they recognized the changing nature of the city and the increasing place, especially in commerce, that Jews had in the city.
The Jewish Advocate | Cara Hogan | 03.13.2009
New Center Brings Cultural Icons to Hub
Beginning the month, acclaimed Jewish writers, journalists, artists and politicians will speak in Boston as part of the New Center for Arts and Culture's annual New Center LIVE! series. The program, which runs from March 24 to June 9, will delve into the minds of the Jewish community's most successful and innovative thinkers.
"This series looks at the ever-changing nature of Jewish contributions to culture around the world," said Francine Achbar, deputy director of the NCAC.
Boston Globe | Joseph P. Kahn | 03.21.2009
A Cartoon Character
According to New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff, 98 percent of the magazine's readers claim to look at the cartoons first - and the other 2 percent lie. He should know. After 500 submissions, Mankoff sold his first cartoon to The New Yorker in 1977, beginning a fertile relationship with the periodical that built its comic reputation on the work of Charles Addams, James Thurber, and Saul Steinberg, among others. Mankoff also runs the magazine's Cartoon Bank, wrote "The Naked Cartoonist: A New Way to Enhance York Creativity," and created the magazine's caption contest, a feature that draws thousands of submissions each week. On Tuesday he'll give a talk titled "Laughing Matters: New Yorker Cartoons and Jewish Humor" at Temple Israel in Boston, sponsored by the New Center for Arts and Culture.
Boston Globe | Jeff Jacoby | 3.30.2008
When Zola wrote “J’Accuse”
IT IS the most famous front page in the history of journalism. Its one-word headline - "J'accuse!" - is if anything even more renowned. On Jan. 13, 1898, the French newspaper L'Aurore published Emile Zola's extraordinary 4,000-word open letter on the Dreyfus Affair, a travesty of justice in which an innocent captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus, had been convicted of treason and sentenced to solitary confinement for life on Devil's Island, a hellish penal colony off the coast of South America'
Boston Globe | Janine Parker | 3.21.2008
In ‘Darkness,’ dance groups collaborate to explore theme of Armenian genocide
MEDFORD - In a bright rehearsal studio, a group of young dancers ends a rather dark scene: The characters are trying to escape unseen forces, and those that have "died" are gestured over, touched, and cradled in the others' arms. The room grows quiet; several older women looking on are moved by what they see. Soon the girls will be giggling and doing their homework on the sidelines - but for one moment, real time has stopped while this beautiful dream of a nightmare unfolds.