In London last month, my first stop was to visit the British Museum. Going there seemed an urgent priority. My thinking was that in such turbulent contemporary times, it is reassuring to see the classics of antiquity, those fundaments of Western Civilization that remain. At the same time, given our shifting ethical rationales concerning antiquities, […]

One of the things I most enjoy about benefit concerts (beyond the whole save-the-world ethos), and music award shows (beyond the awards themselves) is seeing a wide spectrum of artists, each doing 3-5 songs. It’s sort the musical equivalent of a smorgasbord – enough to hear a favorite artist or song and discover someone worth […]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomteicholz/2018/11/23/luciana-souzas-new-recording-the-book-of-longing-translates-poetry-into-jazz/#30ef91717901 On her new recording, “The Book of Longing,” Luciana Souza marries poetry and Jazz in an idiom all her own with spare accompaniment and her uniquely atmospheric vocals to haunting effect. Souza will be performing her lyrical new songs along with some of her more Brazilian-inflected tunes at UCLA’s Royce Hall on December 1 […]

Alison Saar’s new paintings and sculptures at LA Louver in Venice, CA, (on view through May 12, 2018) speak of a strength derived from a bitter harvest. The exhibition is called “Topsy Turvy,” and the figures reference Topsy, a character in Harriett Beecher Stowe’s great abolitionist novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” TO READ MORE: https://bit.ly/2Itf8VU

You never know where you might find a new museum these days. I was recently down in Orange, California visiting Chapman University when I came upon The Hilbert Museum of California Art which bills itself as “California’s newest Art Museum.” Take that with a grain of salt as new Art museums seem to be opening […]

Steve Leder knows things. As the senior Rabbi at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, the 155-year-old Los Angeles congregation that is home to some 2400 families (including mine), where Leder has served for 30 years, when his phone rings, it is often not good news. He has had to comfort, support, minister to and officiate at hundreds […]

To listen to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) conducted by Zubin Mehta playing Tchaikovsky in a newly constructed 1000-person open-air auditorium at a country estate on a summer’s night is heavenly and it is hard to imagine a classical music experience more intimate and emotional. Even more remarkable, this concert was taking place on the […]

Tom Teicholz , CONTRIBUTOR I write about culture and the cult of luxury Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Tom Teicholz The Temple Mount Nir Hasson covers Jerusalem for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz with particular attention to the residents of East Jerusalem. Hasson approaches Jerusalem very much as a city beat reporter, although […]

Jerusalem is as much idea as physical entity, existing in history and in the present, in literature and in prayers, in hearts and minds, as the soul, the dream (and even at times the nightmare) of diverse peoples, as a place fraught with politics and nationalism, convictions and resentments that can be as transcendental as […]

So there I was on a Saturday night, July 15th to be exact, at the StubHub Center, which is the name of the stadium in Carson which is itself a small city of 100,000, located 13 miles south of Downtown LA and about a half hour from Santa Monica. It’s a very nice stadium. It […]