Rocker making movie of black-Jewish roots

new york (jta) | Rock star Lenny Kravitz is making a semi-autobiographical feature film about his black-Jewish roots.

Kravitz, the son of a Jewish TV producer and actress Roxie Roker, told MTV.com he is making his cinematic debut in “Barbecues and Bar Mitzvahs,” a dramatic comedy about a musician searching for love and happiness.

The film is about “growing up between two cultures,” he said. “It’s like ‘Annie Hall’ or ‘Manhattan.'”

Cartoonists exhibit Holocaust themes

washington (jta) | An exhibit of editorial cartoons from the 1940s that challenged the U.S. response to the Holocaust opened in New York.

The exhibit, “Cartoonists Against the Holocaust: Art in the Service of Humanity,” opened Sunday, May 16, at a conference at Manhattan’s Ramaz School called “Teaching and Learning About America’s Response to the Holocaust,” sponsored by the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

The exhibit features the work of editorial cartoonists Eric Godal, Arthur Szyk, Stan MacGovern, A.W. MacKenzie and Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Werner.

“At a time when many Americans were indifferent to the plight of Europe’s Jews, these courageous artists used their talents to try to rouse America’s conscience,” said Rafael Medoff, director of the Wyman Institute.