Celebrity Jews

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CELEBRITY JEWS

NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST

TWO BRAND NEW FILMS & DIAMOND SHINES AT 80

Locked Down, a new comedy/drama film, began streaming on HBO Max on Jan. 14. Here’s the basic plot: Linda (Anne Hathaway) and Paxton (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are a London married couple. They are on the brink of divorce when the COVID pandemic hits. By coincidence, Linda, a fashion executive, and Paxton, a delivery driver, have access to Harrods, the famous British department store, while it is closed because of the pandemic. Linda knows that a very valuable diamond is in the store vault. The couple decide to steal it but give half what they get to COVID charities. Ben Stiller, 55, has a smallish supporting role as Solomon, Linda’s boss.

Director Doug Liman, 55, scored a coup when he got permission from Harrods (which was really closed) to film in the store (a first) and he eventually cajoled them into letting him shoot in the store’s secret vault. Liman has helmed many hit films, including The Bourne Identity (2002), Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2005) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014).

Palmer, another new film, begins streaming on Apple TV+ on Jan. 29. Justin Timberlake stars as Eddie Palmer, a football star whose pro career is destroyed when he is imprisoned. After his release, he returns to his hometown, and things don’t go well until he forms a friendship with a boy whose mother abandoned him. He also begins a romantic relationship with an African American teacher. The supporting cast includes June Squibb, 91, as Eddie’s caring grandmother.

Palmer was directed by Fisher Stevens, 57. You probably know him as a still busy character actor (including costarring in the hit Short Circuit movies and recent recurring roles on Succession and The Good Fight). He is also an accomplished director.

Neil Diamond, who turned 80 on Jan. 24, gave an extensive interview to Parade Magazine (Jan. 10) and the news is surprisingly good. In July 2018, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and immediately stopped touring. He now lives a comfortable life in an expansive cabin in the Colorado Rockies with his wife and dog. Unlike Linda Ronstadt, who also has Parkinson’s, his voice has not been affected by the disease.

Last November, he released “Classic Diamonds.” Diamond reworked 14 of his biggest hits for the CD. He paired his voice with a symphony orchestra. He told Parade he is now working on an album of completely new songs. Also, he told Parade that “America,” written for the 1981 film remake of The Jazz Singer, was among his favorite songs. The song, he said, “was the story of my grandparents coming to America for that freedom. My grandmother, ‘Bubbe Molly’ came to America in steerage … when she was 12, escaping Jewish oppression in Russia … It’s a musical expression of being free.”

Neil Diamond

WIKIPEDIA

continued from page 31 “Chichester Psalms I.” The original composition had Hebrew text.

“Because Bernstein’s music is already sophisticated and a jazz band arrangement is sophisticated by definition, this album is sophistication by the sophisticated,” Chamis said.

Bernstein and Chamis met in Vienna, where Bernstein was conducting and Chamis was a university music student. Chamis, raised in Brazil and later performing as a conductor there, had studied on scholarship at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv.

Among the countries where Bernstein and Chamis worked together were the United States, Israel and England.

“In principle, music does not need words, but this project has so much behind-the-scenes material,” Chamis said. “If listeners read before about the history and culture, they will experience the CD in a much deeper sense.”

COURTESY OF FLAVIO CHANMIS

Flavio Chamis and Leonard Bernstein in Vienna in the 1980s. BERNSTEIN’S ‘REACTION’

Chamis feels comfortable commenting on the way he believes Bernstein might have reacted to this recording because the two were personal friends as well as professional colleagues.

“I believe he would find things he didn’t know existed in his music, and that is why he would like it,” Chamis explained. “Jazz musicians explore new realms within the compositions of others and bring their own ideas out of that. It is communication, and I believe Bernstein would have been communicating with the jazz musicians today.”

Chamis, who worked with Bernstein during the last years of the honoree’s life, was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center during Bernstein’s last summer at the Tanglewood Music Festival.

Chamis met his wife, Tatjana Mead Chamis, at Tanglewood, and the two decided to move to Pittsburgh when she was offered a viola position with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Raising three children, the couple became members of Temple Sinai, where they add their talents to temple services and programs.

“Bernstein was always open to new improvisation, and that’s probably why his music was so alive,” said Chamis, a Latin Grammy nominee. “He was always looking at the music in a new way — trying to find new things in the same old pieces.

“Every time was like a jazz improvisation because he found something different, something new, something fresh. He was not a jazz musician, but there was jazziness in him.”

ON THE GO

PEOPLE | PLACES | EVENTS

‘BOOGIE WOOGIE KID’ 7:30 PM, JAN. 30

Matthew Ball

‘MIGRANTS IN ISRAEL’ 11 AM-12:30 PM, JAN. 31

Sarah Willen

‘SISTER SCHOLARS’ 7-8 PM, FEB. 3

JUDAISM & ISLAM NOON-1 PM, JAN. 28

The U-M Frankel Center for Judaic Studies will present a lecture by Guy G. Stroumsa. The lecture will survey a conception of Judaism and Islam, through an invention of the category of “Semitic religions.” Info: JudaicStudies@umich.edu.

FOLK MUSIC 7 PM, JAN. 29 & 30

The Ark in Ann Arbor and the Ford Motor Co. Fund will present the Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Home. Each night includes a blend of well-known and up-and-coming artists playing 20- to 40-minute

sets, providing an opportunity to hear artists you know and love while discovering great new talent. The lineup delivers the full spectrum of “Ark music,” presenting a taste of what’s happening on the leading edge of acoustic music while delving into the very heart of folk and roots traditions. All funds raised through the festival benefit The Ark, Ann Arbor’s nonprofit home for folk, roots and ethnic music. More info at theark.org.

‘BOOGIE WOOGIE KID’ 7:30 PM, JAN. 30

This evening will feature the Boogie Woogie Kid, Matthew Ball. His act includes piano, song, boogie-n-blues and jazz-nrags. The concert will run for 90 minutes. The cost is a minimum of $18 per family and can be purchased at bit.do/cafeshalomtickets. The link to attend the event will be sent to those registered within a few days prior to Jan. 30. Info: call the Congregation Beth Shalom office at 248-5477970.

‘DISPLACED PERSONS’ 2 PM, FEB. 2

David Nasaw

MUSICAL EVENING 8-9 PM, JAN. 30

The Chamber Music Society of Detroit will present Olga Kern, pianist. Visit info@ cmsdetroit.org.

HOW TO RAISE HEALTHY EATERS 11 AM-NOON, JAN. 31

Join Registered Dietician Dana Goldberg for this online class, as she gives tips and tricks for raising healthy eaters. Register at cszinfo@shaareyzedek.org to sign up for the session, as well as to receive a free bag of healthy kosher snacks from co-sponsor Savorfull. (#CSZHealthyEating)

‘MIGRANTS IN ISRAEL’ 11 AM-12:30 PM, JAN. 31

The Sterling Institute for Jewish studies and Modern Israel in East Lansing will present a lecture by Sarah Willen about her book Fighting for Dignity: Migrant Lives at Israel’s Margins. Visit jewishstudies@liost. msu.edu.

‘DISPLACED PERSONS’ 2 PM, FEB. 2

The Jewish Historical Society of Michigan will host this virtual gathering on Zoom. Hear New York Times-lauded, award-winning author and historian Professor David Nasaw discuss his latest book, The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War (Penguin: 2020). Cost: $10 for members, $18 for non-members. Register by 9 pm Feb. 1. Instructions for joining the Zoom call will be sent the day before.

STRESS MANAGEMENT 11 AM, FEB. 3

Hadassah Greater Detroit presents the virtual program “Don’t Let Stress Manage You!” for Wellness Wednesday. Lynn Breuer, director of Community Outreach & Wellness for JFS of Metropolitan Detroit, will speak on man-

Genocide Today The Uyghurs in China

7 pm Thursday, February 11

Join Dr. Ellen J. Kennedy, Executive Director of World Without Genocide, for a virtual program about e orts to hold the Chinese government accountable. Learn more at www.holocaustcenter.org/upcoming

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PEOPLE | PLACES | EVENTS

continued from page 33 aging stress during stressful times. This workshop focuses on helping people recognize the stress process and to learn techniques to interrupt the stress cycle. It will help you grow in body, mind and spirit. Register by Feb. 1. There is a $10 fee for this session or $40 for all five sessions of future Wellness Wednesday programs to be held on April 21, June 16, Aug. 11, and Oct. 27. Programs to be announced. Register at hadassahmidwest.org/ GDWW2-21 or call 248 683 5030.

‘SISTER SCHOLARS’ 7-8 PM, FEB. 3

U-M Frankel Center for Judaic Studies will host a Zoom webinar on “Sister Scholars: The Emergence of Orthodox Girls’ Education in Interwar Poland” with Naomi Seidman, Frankel Institute Fellow. This lecture will trace the revolution in the name of tradition enacted by Sarah Schenirer, a divorced seamstress with an eighth-grade education, who created a girls’ school system, Bais Yaakov, that rescued Orthodox Jewish society at a moment of peril. Info: judaicstudies@ umich.edu or 734-7639047.

JEWISH MULTILINGUALISM NOON-2 PM, FEB. 4-5

U-M Frankel Center of Judaic studies will present a Zoom webinar on “Jewish Multilingualism in the Midwest: Yiddish Translations of Urban Experience.” The presence of Jews in the big cities of the Midwest has been studied primarily through the lens of urban history, focusing on the post-war period. To this day, the language continues to be studied at the University of Michigan; it is an ideal location for a seminar to reconstruct various histories of translating Detroit, as well as other Midwestern sites, both into and out of Yiddish. Info: judaicstudies@umich.edu or 734-763-9047.

COMPETITIVE COOKING 8 PM, FEB. 9

NEXTGen Detroit Couples and Laura Feld of Laura Rose Cookies bring the fun of competitive cookie decorating to a kitchen near you. Couples will work together to complete the challenge of replicating Laura’s Valentine’s Day-themed cookie designs within a time limit. Couples will be given one kit with four cookies, three bags of icing, sprinkles and an instruction card — but only limited instructions (this is a challenge, after all). At the end of the time allotted, Laura and Ken will review everyone’s cookie collections and declare a winner. Register by Feb. 1. The cost of the event is $18. Certified kosher cookie kits are available upon request. Cookies kits will be available for pickup at the Federation Building, 6735 Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Hills, on Feb. 4 and Feb. 8 from 11 am to 1 pm and 5 pm to 7 pm. Select your preferred pickup date and time when registering. This online event is intended for NEXTGen Detroit couples, married or dating, ages 21 to 45. Questions? Contact Ken at Schneider@jfmd. org.

Compiled by Sy Manello/Editorial Assistant. Send items at least 14 days in advance to calendar@thejewishnews.com.