SHTETL MAGAZINE

When you think of the Rialto Theatre in Montreal, you’re more likely to imagine Halloweeners dressed in drag lining up for the Rocky Horror Picture Show than a soirée with separate seating geared to the Hassidic community.

When your husband “goes out to get cigarettes” and takes off for good, it can be pretty devastating. If you happened to have married under Jewish law, beware, matters can get much worse.

Montrealer Daniel Isaiah’s new album High Twilight leaves no doubt about his immense talent. But did you know about his obsession with poppy seed hamentaschen? Read BJ Loomer’s review of High Twilight for all the dirty details.

Read Joseph Rosen’s compelling defense of the age-old Jewish love for self-hatred. Is this a good thing? What is a “nomadic Jewish ethics” and how might it guide how we live morally, and, make the world laugh more?

Sit back and read Beverly Akerman’s touching tale of family life in Montreal through the eyes of Karen, a young girl who notices every detail. This is a story from The Meaning of Children, Akerman’s Giller-nominated book of short fiction.

“Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish” looks at issues such as arranged marriage, the idealised notion of romantic love, ex-communication from community and family, and community infighting. This is a whacky modern Hassidic take on the age-old tale replete with lost youth, unrequited love and an edginess you’ll only find in Brooklyn.

Socalled’s out with a new album and it’s one big funky Sleepover party with all the emotional and musical ups and downs of a gang of teenagers getting drunk, watching horror movies, dancing and making out in the basement at the cool kid’s house while her parents are upstairs fast asleep. Review by M. Kassel

“Crime after Crime” presents the agonizing story of one woman’s wrongful first-degree murder conviction and her eventual release after serving 27 years behind bars.

“Stalin Thought of You” recounts the fascinating story of Jewish political cartoonist Boris Efimov’s complex relationship to Joseph Stalin. Efimov’s pen drew the political leaders who shaped a century, including the one who had his own brother murdered.

There is no shortage of male bonding road trip novels, but Norman Ravvin’s The Joyful Child might just be the first story about a grown man on the road with a four-year-old.