JEWISH FEDERATION OPENS EMERGENCY FUND TO AID FRENCH JEWS — Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City stands in solidarity with the 500,000-strong French Jewish community, the families and friends of the victims of the Charlie Hebdo and kosher market shootings and the entire nation of France. For those interested in providing philanthropic support to the victims of recent terrorist attacks in Paris, Jewish Federation has opened the France Emergency Fund. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}The funds will be used to address security needs of the French Jewish community, as well as to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims and their families. To donate, go to www.jewishkansascity.org/france.
MAZEL TOV — Grant Samuel James Cowan, born on Jan. 11, the son of Cara and Douglas Cowan, is The Chronicle’s first Jewish baby of 2015. A full feature on the baby will be published in the Jan. 22 issue.
ART EXHIBITION —Jewish artist Gerry Trilling is one of 10 artists featured in StudiosInc:2 through Feb. 15. The exhibition is at The Studios Inc at 1708 Campbell in Kansas City, Mo. The studio provides studio space, professional development, networking and exhibitions for mid-career artists in Greater Kansas City. The Studios Inc will be a catalyst for creating a nationally viable visual arts community in Greater Kansas City that contributes to the area’s cultural significance and economic sustainability. Call 816-994-7134 for more information.
PARIS ATTACKS LOOM OVER GOLDEN GLOBES CEREMONY LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Actors including George Clooney, Kathy Bates and Helen Mirren wore “Je Suis Charlie” buttons at the Golden Globes Awards ceremony in memory of the 12 people killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.
The terrorist killings in the French capital in the preceding days, which also included an attack on a kosher supermarket that killed four Jewish men on Jan. 9, lent a serious undertone on Sunday to the usually lighthearted affair hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Among those killed last week at Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, was the celebrated French Jewish cartoonist Georges Wolinski.
In the awards, the winner for Best TV Series-Comedy was “Transparent,” written and directed by Jill Soloway. The series revolves around a Jewish family with a patriarch who tells his three grown children that he is adopting a female persona.
The Forward in a headline called “Transparent” “the Jewiest Show Ever.”
Maggie Gyllenhaal topped the field for best performance by an actress in a miniseries or TV movie for her performance in “The Honourable Woman.” Gyllenhaal, who has a Jewish mother, portrays Nessa Stein, a Jewish businesswoman who tries to bridge Middle East hostilities by linking Israelis and Palestinians through a communications network.
The biggest, though uncredited, Jewish winner of the evening may have been the late novelist Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), whose writings inspired director Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” winner of the Best Motion Picture-Comedy award. Sharing in the triumph was Jewish producer Scott Rudin.
Israel’s entry in the foreign-language film competition made the shortlist of five finalists with “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem,” chronicling the five-year struggle by an Orthodox woman in Israel to convince a rabbinical court to grant her a Jewish divorce from her husband. “Gett” lost out to Russia’s “Leviathan,” the story of a working man fighting the corrupt mayor of his town.
Another finalist, and early favorite, in the category was Poland’s entry, “Ida,” the story of a young Polish woman about to take her vows as a nun who discovers that she is the daughter of Jewish parents killed in the Holocaust.{/mprestriction}