The beauty of Babyn Yar The site of the first mass killing in Nazi-occupied Europe, Babyn Yar has been a dormant field in Ukraine for years. In 2021, a new monu- ment was erected on the ghastly site: a stunning synagogue, colourful and magical, like something out of a fairy tale, literally unfolding like a pop-up book using gears and tracks. The man behind it is Manuel Herz, a Jewish architect based in
Switzerland who has spent many years researching and contemplat- ing what defines Jewish architecture. His conclusion could be said to be the Babyn Yar Synagogue itself: with no homeland for so many years, rather than develop an architectural style, Jews became known as the “People of the Book”. It’s that literary tradition that inspired the pop-up book style of his incredible monument, which pays tribute to the surviving spirit, optimism and creativity of the Jewish people.
Jokes that bomb Jeff Rothpan recently worked on Roast Battle Canada , which was nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards. But before that, the Montreal native—who moved to Los An- geles at a young age to pursue his dream of being a comedian and writer—made a career writing jokes for the likes of Steve Martin, John Cleese and Pamela Anderson. Things really took off once he started work- ing with Jeff Dunham, the comic ventriloquist whose dummy characters include hicks, weirdos, grumps and a dumb dead terror- ist named Achmed, who prematurely blew himself up by accident. Rothpan travelled around the world with Dunham and his sup- porting puppets as he performed in Iceland, South Africa and the Middle East—includ- ing Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Subscribe to Culturally Jewish to hear how Achmed (and Rothpan’s jokes) were received in those countries, where suicide bombers aren’t just a throwaway gag.
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