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Episode 104: Crying and Doing: Iris Bahr and her Aging Mother

Iris Bahr was halfway around the world when she saw her mother having a stroke over video chat. Within days, she was on an airplane, uprooting her life to become her mother’s primary caregiver. The stroke led to vascular dementia– an irreversible condition. Iris is a writer and actor and chronicles the story in a poignant—and funny— one-woman show See You Tomorrow.  In this episode of Can We Talk?, Nahanni speaks with Iris Bahr about caring for her aging mother and about creating art from personal tragedy. Excerpts from Iris’s show are woven throughout the interview.

Woman with puppets on each hand staging a puppet show

Women Shaping Jewish Life in Germany

Donna Swarthout
Doris H. Gray

Women are at the forefront of efforts to change the perception and reality of Jewish life in Germany. 

Anna Ziegler Headshot

7 Questions For Anna Ziegler

Sarah Groustra

JWA talks to playwright Anna Ziegler. 

Topics: Theater, Poetry, Plays

Beanie Feldstein Stars in Broadway Revival of “Funny Girl”

March 26, 2022

After several decades off the stage, Funny Girl returned to Broadway in a 2022 revival starring Jewish actress Beanie Feldstein. On March 26, 2022, Feldstein mounted the stage of the August Wilson Theatre, and stepped into the role of Fanny Brice, bringing her own comedic twist to the Jewish vaudeville character that left the theater roaring with laughter.  

Tatiana Wecshler Headshot

7 Questions For Tatiana Wechsler

Jen Richler

Our new series 7 Questions For... debuts with Black Jewish actor/singer/songwriter Tatiana Wecshler. 

Topics: Theater, Music

Sylvia Willard

Project
DAVAR: Vermont Jewish Women's History Project

Sandy Gartner and Ann Buffum interviewed Sylvia Willard on June 29, 2005, in Rutland, Vermont, as part of the Vermont Jewish Women's Oral History Project. Willard shares her family history, growing up in Vermont, her passion for theater, involvement in the Jewish community, meeting her husband Howard, and their successful ventures in the retail industry.

Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari Wins Ophir Award for Best Actress for Leading Role in "Nadia "

September 20, 1987

Israeli writer, actor, director, and producer Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari consistently advocates for Mizrahi voices in her artistic pursuits. Through films and plays that often foreground Mizrahi women’s stories in Israel, she integrates her passions for art and advocacy to produce internationally acclaimed works about stories personal to her life.  

Sandra Bernhard

Sandra Bernhard is an American actor, stand-up comedian, singer, memoirist, and talk show host. She has been a high-profile LGBTQ+ presence over a career that has spanned five decades. Bernhard’s work amalgamates the three perspectives that she has said define her: “the feminist, the social commentator, the Jewess.”

Vivienne Shub

Project
Weaving Women's Words

Elaine Eff interviewed Vivienne Shub on September 4, 2001, in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the Weaving Women's Words Oral History Project. Shub talks about her family background, her parents' activism, her journey as an actress, founding Center Stage in Baltimore, her involvement in cultural and political movements, her love for Jewish and Yiddish culture, and reflections on various aspects of her life and career.

Habiba Msika, Tunisian Actress and Singer, is Murdered

February 21, 1930

On February 21, 1930, Habiba Msika, a Tunisian actress and singer, was murdered. Often called the “first star of Tunis,” Msika rose to fame across the Maghreb and Middle East because of her beautiful voice and unique talent to entertain. Her life of luxury was brought to an untimely end by her murder by a jealous suitor.

Meskie Shibru, the First Professional Ethiopian Actress in Israel, is Born

September 29, 1967

On September 29, 1967, Meskie Shibru was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. After immigrating to Israel at eighteen to escape persecution, she became the country’s first professional Ethiopian actress.

Picture of Main Actresses in "Mamma Mia" Production at the Terazije Theatre in Serbia, 2015

"Mamma Mia" is a Feminist Exploration of Choice

Georgia Fried

In my view, Sophie embodies the notion of choice—a central feminist idea that is explored in the musical.

Topics: Feminism, Theater

Episode 77: Word of the Week: Yenta

How did a popular Yiddish woman's name come to mean gossip and busybody? In the first of our new Word of the Week mini-series, we trace the evolution of the word yenta. Producer Jen Richler talks with Fiddler on the Roof scholar Jan Lisa Huttner, comedian Judy Gold, author Lizzie Skurnick, and TikTok star and Torah commentator Miriam Anzovin. And in a special cameo...Yente the Matchmaker herself!

Rain Pryor’s One-Woman Play “Fried Chicken and Latkes” Earns NAACP Theatre Award

February 21, 2005

On February 21, 2005, Jewish comedian, actress, singer, and writer Rain Pryor received an NAACP Theatre Award for her one-woman autobiographical play, “Fried Chicken and Latkes.” In the play, Pryor explores her experiences with racism growing up Black and Jewish in Beverly Hills, CA, as well as her complex relationship with her father, the late comedian Richard Pryor.

Images of Jewish Women in Medieval European Literature

Medieval European representations of Jewish women by Christian authors reveal anxieties about Jews and their imagined intentions. Some of these writings portray young Jewish women as easily seduced by Christian men and Christian teachings; others depict a beautiful but malevolent Jewish woman who leads a Christian boy to his ritual death. Another motif, supposed sexual liaisons between a ruler and a Jewish woman, expresses Christian perceptions of Jewish threats to the Christian state.

Esther Brandeau

Esther Brandeau was born in southwestern France around 1718, descended from exiles of the Inquisition in Iberia. Brandeau passed as Christian and male across France for five years before setting sail as Jacques La Fargue. Doubly outed at or en route to Québec, Brandeau | La Fargue was ultimately deported from New France, purportedly for refusing to convert to Christianity.

Diane Noomin

Diane Noomin was an acclaimed cartoonist and editor and the creator of her alter ego, DiDi Glitz. Noomin was a central figure in women’s comics beginning with the early feminist publications of the 1970s. In 2011 she published an anthology of her work, Glitz-2-Go: Diane Noomin Collected Comics.

Mirra Burovsky-Eitingon

Mirra Burovsky was the first Jewish actress to star in the mainstream Russian theater. Her stormy life and career brought her to center stage of Jewish cultural, intellectual, and social ferment in Tsarist and revolutionary Russia, Weimar Germany, and mandatory Palestine. Her third marriage, to psychoanalytist Max Eitingon, and the career of her son Yuli Khariton, “the father of the Soviet atomic bomb,” created the background for a continuing espionage controversy.

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman is an actress and activist who takes pride in her acting roles as a reflection of her activism. Her ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the role and importance of women.

Karen Sarhon

Karen Gerson Sarhon, founder and vocalist of the Sephardic music group Los Pasharos Sefaradis, is coordinator of the Sephardic Culture Research Center in Istanbul, Turkey, and chief editor of El Amaneser, the world's only newspaper wholly in Judeo-Spanish/Ladino. She continues to produce innovative projects for the preservation and promotion of Sephardic culture and language.

 

Elizabeth Swados

Elizabeth (Liz) Swados was an American composer, writer, and theatrical director. Best known for her 1978 Broadway musical, Runaways, Swados created a diverse body of work that included novels, poetry, plays, music, and musicals.

Judith Katzir

Yehudit Katzir (b. 1963) is an Israeli author who emerged as a leading female voice in what had been a male-dominated literary field until the 1980s. Her novels and short stories are noted for their idiosyncratic and lyrical language, as well as their focus on female identity and treatment of taboo themes.

"Don't start with me, Karen" sign

Calling Out the Karens in the Jewish Community

Allison Abrams

How do white Jewish women contribute to anti-Blackness?

Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles

Film Review: "Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles"

Dr. Helene Meyers

After watching Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, viewers will likely find themselves humming “If I Were A Rich Man” and “Tradition” for days.

Topics: Film, Theater

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