Who What & Where: Andrew Garfield, Margarita Gokun Silver and this Month In Jewish History…

The American Dream: Interview

The author of a laugh-out-loud memoir of the trials and tribulations
of a young woman who persuades her parents to move from  Soviet Russia to America will discuss her experiences at an  event next month. Margarita Gokun Silver humorously relates her ultimate goal of becoming American.

This, she thought when she left Russia aged 20 in 1989, would be almost as simple as acquiring some Levi’s jeans and losing her Russian accent.

However, there was, unsurprisingly, more to it than that, as she reveals in her collection of essays, I Named My Dog Pushkin (and Other Immigrant Tales): Notes From a Soviet Girl on Becoming an American Woman.

Margarita discusses  her novel with Jewish News journalist Alex Galbinski at a free online event on Tuesday 1 March, between  7pm and 8pm. There will also be a Q&A, with a prize for the best question.

Tickets are free but must be booked in advance:

https://bit.ly/33IuVMa

TV: Getting better

There are times when it would be really nice to live in the USA, and to be resident for the start of Better Things season five is such a time. Across the pond they will be watching the final season on Hulu from Monday, 28 February, while we have to wait to watch the last hoorah of the smartest, most honest and most heart-warming show on TV, for women in particular. Created by Pamela Adlon and the not-to-be forgotten stand-up Louis CK, each half hour revolves around Sam Fox (no, not that one), a single mother and working actress with no filter trying to navigate the lives of her three daughters and bohemian mother (Celia Imrie).

Adlon, who writes, directs and stars in the series, is well known for her raunch in Californication, but her semi-autobiographical Better Things is loaded with so much kvetching and kvelling you want to be her friend. This was never more true than when Adlon appeared on Finding Your Roots (YouTube) and discovered her mother’s half-sister and learned that her great-great-grandfather was a rabbi. Throwing her arms up yelling “Yes!” is one of those times you want to hug her.

Better Things seasons 1-4 is on BBC iPlayer

This Month In Jewish History…

By Jewish News’ historian Derek Taylor

Jackie Fields was born Jacob Finkelstein in Chicago on 9 February 1908. His father was a Russian emigrant butcher. Jackie Fields took to boxing at a very early age. Aged just 16, he became the youngest Olympic Featherweight Champion ever at the Summer Olympics in Paris in 1924. As an amateur, he won 51 out of 54 fights and, in 1929, he won the World Professional Welterweight championship, successfully defending the title later in the year. In 85 professional fights, he was only knocked out once and was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2004. In later life, he appeared in films, chaired the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and coached the United States team for the 1965 Maccabiah Games. He part-owned the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. He died in 1987 at the age of 79.

Israeli artist at Kew

For a breathtaking exhibition dedicated to the natural world, head to Kew Gardens for Israeli artist Zadok Ben-David’s stunning work. As we wandered through the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art, there were audible gasps at the spectacular display put on by the internationally renowned artist and sculptor. It has been 13 years since Zadok’s work has been seen at scale in London. This exhibition centres on themes of tragedy and hope, focusing on the constantly evolving, often fragile relationship between humanity and the natural world. The exhibition, which has been extended until 24 April owing to popular demand, includes Blackfield (pictured), an installation that contains more than 17,000 steel flowers etched with intricate detail and assembled entirely by hand. Blackfield, which plays upon sensations of perception and perspective and has been exhibited to critical and public acclaim in more than 20 countries, is extraordinary and it would be understandable if you went just for that – but there’s plenty more to inspire you.  A great exhibition worthy of a five-fishball rating.

by Alex Galbinski

www.kew.org

Actor:  Go Garfield

We don’t like to pick a team, but after Andrew Garfield came out as a Jew on the Graham Norton Show, all bets were off. Nominated for an Oscar for his brilliant portrayal of Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick… Boom!, Andrew told Graham that playing the late composer felt like “being reunited with a long lost older brother”, before adding:  “And we’re both Jews.” “Great,” said fellow guest Dawn French, and so did all of us.  On performance alone he deserved the gong, but now…

Say Cheese on 1 March

The curmudgeon in you will try to ignore it, but 1 March is Share a Smile Day. With masks no longer essential (mistake), the way to get through 24 hours of required beaming is to put Charlie Chaplin’s Smile on the headset and learn from laughter makers such as comedian Rachel Creeger, who will be marking the day by smiling at her new table and chairs.

“Making others smile feels like a gift,” she says, which sounds like an open invitation to view her dining room suite. She continues: “To make people smile is a shared experience. Every time you perform, you get different reactions and emotions, and that makes me smile.” For Rachel, it is all about the cheek ache.

“If they ache, I know I’ve been smiling a lot and that is a good thing!” Furniture aside, comedian, writer and podcaster Philip Simon offers a joke for National Smile Day and it is about his grandma: “Daphne Benjamin passed away peacefully in her sleep. She was surrounded by her two daughters and seven grandchildren… including Philip, 33, average build, GSOH, likes travelling, reading and long walks in the country. That’s a joke that always makes the audience laugh and always makes me smile, as I get to remember my grandma, who I was very close to,” says Philip.

by Micaela Blitz