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Unsurpassed luxury | The most all-inclusive amenitiesJewish-inspired excursions | Five-star farm-to-table cuisine Come discover it allExperience the wonders of the Rhine on our NEW Authentic Danube & Prague and enhanced Remarkable Rhine & Historic Holland itineraries. Plus, you can save 10% on select 2019 itineraries with Early Booking Savings.Visit Uniworld.com/JewishHeritage, call 800-307-4689 or contact your Travel Agent.THE RHINE’S STUNNING SILHOUETTESframed by Central Europe’s enduring Jewish legacy.summermusic 2018 at The Original Farmers Marketat The Original Farmers Market5/18 The International Swingers All-Star Rock & Roll5/25 Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas Rock N’ Soul 6/1 Rick Whitfield Band Motown/Hits 6/8 Upstream Reggae Soca 6/15 Orquesta Charangoa Cuban Charanga 6/22 Bleeding Harp Rockin’ Blues 6/29 Jennifer Leitham Trio Straight Ahead/Modern Jazz 7/6 Bad Haggis Featuring Eric Rigler Celtic/Rock/Pop/World Beat Fusion 7/13 Skin & Bones Americana 7/20 Bobby Matos Tribute Afro-Cuban Jazz 7/27 Jennifer Keith Quintet American Jazz & Swing 8/3 Nutty Jetsetter Jazz 8/10 Louie Cruz Beltran Latin Jazz/Salsa 8/17 Larry O. Williams & Friends Smooth Jazz w/ Serious Funk 8/24 Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys Rockabilly 8/31 Katia Moraes & Brazilian Hearts Choro & SambaCelebrate summer with delicious eats, dynamic beats and cool evening breezes at Third & Fairfax as we present live performances each Friday through Labor Day.WEST PATIO • FRIDAYS • 7-9 PM6333 W. THIRD ST. • LOS ANGELES • 323.933.9211 #FARMERSMARKETLA FARMERSMARKETLA.COMInstaSchedule is subject to change.90 MINUTES FREE PARKING IN FARMERS MARKET LOTS WITH MERCHANT PURCHASE VALIDATION.Joshua Bell May 8Executive Director, Thor SteingraberTheSorayaStage TheSoraya.orgSingle tickets June 122018-19 SeasonSUBSCRIPTIONS ON SALE NOW!Eden Espinosa December 1Tagueros del Sur November 17Jennifer Koh November 16EditorialEditor Kelly HartogCopy Editor Linda WhitmoreProduCtionart director Lynn PelkeyGraphic designer Paul TakizawaadvErtisinGExecutive director, advertisingMartin Finkelsteinsenior account ExecutivesShoshana Cohen, Arlyn Isen, Marc KatzJunior account Executive Ginger Vicktraffic Manager Sara Budisantososales Coordinator Angela HayadMinistrationChief Financial officer Adam LevineBookkeeper Andrea AlonsoExecutive assistant Shanni Suissaadministrative assistant Tova SuissaJEWishJournal.CoMtriBE MEdia CorP.3250 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1250Los Angeles, CA 90010 (213) 368-1661visit the Journal online: jewishjournal.comAnnual subscription rate: $69 for home delivery (restricted in certain areas); $148 for mail both in California and out of state; $350 outside of the United States. For all subscription services, visit JewishJournal.com or call (213) 368-1661, ext.129.on thE CovEr: Lior Raz stars in the long-awaitedsecond season of “Fauda.”Photo by Ohad Romano/Courtesy of Yes StudiosThe Jewish Journal does not endorse the goods and services advertised in its pages, and it makes no representation as to the kashrut of the food products and services in such advertising.Published weekly by TRIBE Media Corp. David SuissaPublisher and Editor-in-Chiefsummer sneaks69 10 1516 1820 22Lior Raz on ‘Fauda’s’ Return‘The Cakemaker’ Explores Religion, Sex and PastriesA Jewish Guide to Summer MoviesSeven Books to Keep on Your Summer Reading RadarMother of Murdered Actress Pays Tribute With ‘You in Midair’Sister Act: Zoey and Madelyn DeutchThe Jewish Stars of Summer TVCalendar14ARTs & ENTERTAINMENT AT ThE jEwIsh jouRNAl | MAy 20186209jewishjournal.com may 2018 n arts & entertainment at the jewish journal n summer sneaks n 5Lior raz oN ‘FaUDa’S’ rETUrNby Gerri Miller6 n summer sneaks n Arts & entertAinment At the jewish journAl n mAy 2018 jewishjournal.comLior Raz in “Fauda”When it premiered on Is-raeli TV in 2015, the dra-ma series “Fauda” broke new ground for its por-trayal of both Jews and Palestinians as fully-fledged, equally flawed human beings, and the complicated conflict between them in many shades of gray. Amid praise and accolades, including six Israeli Academy of Film and Television (Ophir) awards, Netflix acquired the series and began streaming it in December 2016. The second season, which aired last year in Israel and earned 11 Ophirs, premieres May 24 on Netflix.“Fauda,” which means chaos in Arabic, follows both an Israeli counter-terrorism unit operating in the West Bank and Hamas terrorists. The show is presented in He-brew and Arabic. Tellingly, there are a lot of similarities between Israeli Doron Kavillio, played by series co-creator Lior Raz, and ter-rorist leader Nidal aka “Al Makdesi” (Firas Nassar). Both men are hotheaded, doggedly determined and defy authority. And just as the members of Doron’s unit pose as Arabs to gather intelligence, Nidal uses college stu-dents posing as Jews in his attacks.“We always try to find the similarity on both sides, between the nemesis and the hero,” Raz said by telephone from Israel. “There are similarities in how they behave, but Nidal is a terrorist who kills innocent people and is motivated by revenge. Doron is motivated by the chase, the adrenaline and that someone is threatening his life and his family’s lives.”Thematically, “this season is about the re-lationships between fathers and sons and it’s about revenge — how the circle of violence continues because of the need for revenge,” Raz said. “And about the price that both sides are paying for their actions.”Raz, who served in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in an undercover special ops unit, based a lot of “Fauda” on his experi-ences. “I took a lot of things from my experi-ences, not just in the military, but in life,” he said. “The relationship with my father in the show is very similar to my relationship with my father in real life. But there are other [fic-tional] things that are just good drama. We try to combine everything.”When “Fauda” was first broadcast in Is-rael, “people didn’t know how to react,” Raz said. “There was a little bit of criticism, but as the season went on they loved it. I thought no one would watch, just my fam-ily. But it has become a big hit all over the world.” From Jews in particular, he noted, “I feel there is a pride about the show and I’m so glad to see it when I meet with people in Jewish communities all over the world.” The fact that “Fauda” was embraced by a wide spectrum of people also took Raz by surprise. “We thought the Israeli right wing-ers would hate us because we are human-izing the Palestinian; the left wingers would hate us because we show Israeli soldiers do-ing bad things sometimes, and we thought the Arabs and Palestinians would hate us be-cause we’re showing terrorists killing Israe-lis. But what happened is the right wingers think it’s a right-wing show, the left wingers think it’s a left-wing show and the Arabs love it because we’re honoring their language and their narrative, showing their side,” he said. “That’s the secret of the success of the show.” Born in Israel to an Iraqi father and an Algerian mother, Raz grew up listening to Arabic music alongside Tchaikovsky and Mozart and speaking Arabic with his parents and grandmother. “We were culturally Jew-ish. We celebrated the holidays, we fasted on Yom Kippur and had Kiddush on Friday night, but that’s it,” he said. Nonetheless, his Jewish identity is ironclad. “This is my heritage and why I live in Israel,” he said. “I’m very connected to my heritage and my Judaism. In Israel, it’s not a question at all. It’s something you’re born into when you live in the Jewish state. You fight for the Jewish state. You belong to the Jewish state. You can-not disconnect the two.”After his IDF service, Raz moved to Los Angeles in 1993 and was hired by an Israeli-run personal security company as a body-guard for Arnold Schwarzenegger. “It was nothing to write home about. I was in the home, with his family,” Raz said.Working for the movie star had no influ-ence on Raz’s eventual career choice. “I didn’t want to be an actor at that time. I thought I’d be connected to security all my life,” he said. However, when he returned to Israel a year later, he looked into working at a tech company. “But I woke up one morning and realized I’m not living my dream. And I went to acting school when I was 24.”After studying at the Nissan Nativ drama school in Tel Aviv, Raz began landing roles in theater and small parts in TV series, includ-ing “Srugim,” “Mesudarim,” “The Gordin Cell,” and “Prime Minister’s Children.” He has often played soldiers, policemen and undercover agents in projects with dramat-ic heft, but reveals that he “has done a lot of comedy in my life,” including improv. “I would love to do more,” he said.His next film isn’t a comedy, but it’s a prestige project: “Operation Finale,” about Israel’s secret mission to capture Nazi Ho-locaust architect Adolf Eichmann and bring him to justice. Raz plays Isser Harel, director of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad in the film, which will be released Sept. 21. He felt a sense of accountability to both the person and the history.“It was a story that we grew up on in Is-rael, since I was a kid. The responsibility isn’t just to the character but to the story. We tried to be as authentic as we could,” he said. “It was a great experience working with actors like Ben Kingsley, Melanie Laurent [and] Os-car Isaac. I want to work more and more in the U.S. and internationally and I’m doing it. I have a lot of plans for that. There are a lot of options right now.”These days, Raz lives in L.A. part time, but his home and family — actress Meital Barda and their three children, ages 3, 8 and 10—are in Ramat HaSharon, Israel. He and co-creator Avi Issacharoff are now writing scripts for the third season of “Fauda,” and are developing two new series for Netflix. One is about a joint CIA-Mossad operation to capture and kill a terrorist leader, and the other is a thriller about a man whose wife is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident.“I want to do what we did in Israel, creat-ing shows and acting in international shows, bringing my point of view and Avi’s point of view to people all over the world,” Raz said. He hopes that viewers who tune in to the new episodes of “Fauda” will be entertained first, “and second, understand both sides of the conflict. I want them to understand that war is bad, no matter where you are — Afghanistan, Syria, Israel — and that there is a price for the actions that you take as a warrior.” Raz doesn’t think that the Israeli-Pales-tinian conflict will end anytime soon, but he remains hopeful. “I think extremists on both sides are leading the herd,” he said. “The hope will come from people who understand that we are quite alike. The first thing is for both sides to learn the language. This is how we can start the peace process.” lThe second season of “Fauda” is streaming on Netflix.jewishjournal.com may 2018 n arts & entertainment at the jewish journal n summer sneaks n 7Photos courtesy of Netflix Doron Ben-David (left) and Lior Raz in “Fauda” “I’m very connected to my heritage and my Judaism.” — Lior RazThe Cakemaker” should satisfy the most finicky pastry lover, but otherwise the Israeli-German co-production has elicited ecstatic praise and sneering dismissal from film critics.Variety gushes over the “tender, tactile” atmosphere of the “auspicious feature debut,” while the Hollywood Reporter dismisses the “wishy-washy characters … weak screenplay … and stiff performance” of the lead character.Audiences are likely to be divided along the same lines, depending to a large extent on their tolerance for sexually and emotionally complex characters that don’t fall easily into standard categories.There is Thomas (German actor Tim Kalkhof), who runs a small cake and pastry café in Berlin. Among his most loyal customers is Israeli businessman Oren, who works for an Israeli-German city planning company. Oren is played by Israeli actor Roy Miller.Although devoted to his wife, Anat, and young son back in Jerusalem, Oren finds himself sexually attracted to Thomas, and the two begin an affair. However, when Oren has to return to Jerusalem, he promises to stay in touch and return to Berlin a month later. When Thomas doesn’t hear from Oren, he keeps calling him but there is no response. Eventually he checks in with Oren’s office and discovers Oren was killed in an auto accident.Distraught, but determined to learn more about his dead lover, Thomas flies to Israel and tracks down the restaurant run by Anat (played by talented Israeli actress Sarah Adler.)Without revealing his relationship with Oren, Thomas is hired as a dishwasher. However, he can’t resist baking some cookies on the side, which delight Anat and her son. Less delighted is Anat’s observant brother Moti (Zohar Strauss) because the German unwittingly has used treif ingredients, thus putting at risk the restaurant’s kosher certification. Nevertheless, Thomas now moves into full cake-baking mode, and the hitherto sparsely patronized restaurant becomes a highly popular local eatery.Anat soon falls in love with Thomas, and makes the initial sexual overtures. After some hesitation, Thomas reciprocates. “The Cakemaker” looks at the complexities created when people of different and changing sexual orientations, religions and nationalities try to establish close relationships. Orchestrating the complex interactions in his first feature film is Ofir Raul Graizer, born in Israel but working out of Berlin. He is openly gay, but argues in both his professional and personal life against defining a person by a single facet. Raised by a religious father and a secular mother, Graizer explained his perspective in an interview with the online site Cineuropa.“I always wanted to tell a story about people who don’t want to be defined by political, sexual or national identities,” he said. “They want to say, ‘I don’t care about this identity; I am who I am. I want to love someone because I need to be close to that person and not because I’m homosexual or heterosexual.’ ”The film’s dialogue, written also by Graizer, is in Hebrew, German, and — when Israelis converse with Germans — English. l “The Cakemaker” opens June 29 at Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, 673 E. Colorado Blvd.; Laemmle’s Royal, 11523 Santa Monica Blvd., West L.A.; and Laemmle’s Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd., Encino.by Tom Tugend‘The Cakemaker’ explores religion, sex and pasTriesPhoto courtesy of Strand ReleasingTim Kalkhof in “The Cakemaker.”jewishjournal.com may 2018 n arts & entertainment at the jewish journal n summer sneaks n 9Next >