The White Russians were kosher, character costumes were topped off with yarmulkes, and participants were most certainly not rolling on Shabbos at Israel's first ever Big Lebowski festival.
The seemingly absurd struggles of the Middle East and the revolutions of the Arab Spring mingle on stage as the background to a new play by New York Jews about a love affair between a young Muslim woman and an Israeli secret agent.
Philip Roth, America's most decorated living novelist, has won the fourth Man Booker International Prize, beating off competition from 12 other authors for the 60,000 pound ($97,500) award.
Israeli director Joseph Cedar, whose film about the army withdrawal from southern Lebanon garnered an Oscar nomination, said Sunday he was looking inward with his current Cannes entry.
A spokesman for Justin Bieber told JTA that the pop star is not meeting with children from Israel's rocket-beset south because of logistics, not politics.
Israel-born Natalie Portman, beaming and proudly pregnant, walked off with the best actress trophy for her portrayal of a tortured ballerina in “Black Swan.”
Czech novelist, short story writer and Holocaust survivor Arnost Lustig died in Prague on Saturday, aged 84, after fighting blood cancer for five years, the CTK news agency reported.
A white building tucked into a residential neighbourhood of this cosmopolitan city holds a treasure trove few here know about: the Arab region's only Jewish museum.
