Whatever its earthly, economic problems, Greece owes me big. This week, I cleansed it of a three-headed Hydra, freed Athens from hordes of the undead, and gave Prometheus a hand with that pesky bird pecking at his liver.
No need to thank me, however. I was just doing my bit. Or rather, Kratos was: He is ...

Ugh, remember that time you had told your friend, who you’re like friends with or whatever but didn’t feel like dealing with, that you were just going to stay in for the night, but then you went out and the next day someone posted a picture of you on Facebook, and you were busted? Well, ...

My former commander in the Israel Defense Forces, a gruff but funny paratrooper with an overdeveloped sense of the macabre, was fond of quoting the saying, “Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
I thought about him last weekend as I watched the most recent offerings from two of cinema’s contemporary ...

In the cosmology of Jewish holidays, Passover has traditionally been the celebration whose readings and rituals inspire worshippers to question the nature of their own Jewish values and beliefs. For decades, Jews of all persuasions have fashioned their own seders, some adding a cup for the prophetess Miriam in celebration of Jewish women, others supplementing ...

Jim and Pam, meet Yossi and Dana: an Israeli remake of The Office, Ricky Gervais’s brilliant BBC sitcom—whose U.S. version is currently in its sixth season on NBC—is slated to air in the coming months.
But the Israeli Office may be home to more than just bumbling, affable paper salesmen. One of the show’s lead writers, ...

With $40.2 million in ticket sales, Shutter Island gave Martin Scorsese his strongest opening weekend ever. But film-goers enticed by the previews’ promises of creepy lunatics and chiseled federal agents in fedoras may be surprised to learn that the director, having affirmed his love for operatic violence in earlier films such as Raging Bull and ...

If you’ve ever lived in New York, even for a spell, you’re likely familiar with the titillating genre commonly known as real estate porn.
It’s not that different from the fleshy kind: glossy magazines featuring intricately lit and carefully airbrushed spreads, measurements prominently displayed and met with oohs and ahs, fantasies of a more enticing life ...

If you’re interested in America’s political future, last week was a great time to read the writing on the wall.
Or, more accurately, the writing on the hand: addressing the Tea Party movement’s national conference, Sarah Palin—paragon of stately elegance, former vice-presidential candidate, present television commentator, future unknown—jotted down the key points of her speech on ...

Over the course of the coming month, as members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cast their votes for one of the five titles nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, they’ll be called on to assess more than just cinematic merit. Comparing two of the nominees—Israel’s Ajami and Germany’s The White Ribbon—requires ...

Inevitably, at some point or other during the course of each year, a friend drops by with a resolution. “That’s it,” he or she will swear serenely, over brunch or coffee or dry gin martinis, “I’ll no longer speak lashon hara.”
Hebrew for “evil tongue,” it’s Judaism’s catchall phrase for slander, gossip, and other forms of ...