Here’s what we’re reading (and watching): Jewish and black a cappella groups team up for a music video in honor of MLK Day; the late actor Alan Rickman (Hans Gruber in “Die Hard,” Severus Snape in “Harry Potter”) wrote and staged a play about pro-Palestinian activist Rachel Corrie; and the Academy of the Hebrew Language releases new words for junk food, gentrification and panic.
Jewish a cappella group the Maccabeats got together with black a cappella group Naturally 7 for a cover of James Taylor’s “Shed a Little Light” in honor of Martin Luther King Day, which is coming up on Monday. The song famously begins with the line “Let us turn our thoughts today to Martin Luther King.” Here’s the text that introduces the video:
In 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. told the world about his dream. In honor of Dr. King’s birthday, we offer our prayer to keep that dream alive.
Alan Rickman directed and helped edit “My Name is Rachel Corrie,” a play about the true story of a pro-Palestinian activist who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza in 2003. Of the many remembrances of Rickman’s work circulating since his death Thursday, this one in Salon focuses on the play, which caused quite a stir at the time:
Overall, “My Name is Rachel Corrie” was very well received, despite the adverse reaction from pro-Israel groups. “I never imagined that the play would create such acute controversy,” Rickman told leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz in a 2007 interview. “Many Jews supported it. The New York producer was Jewish and we held a discussion after every performance.”
The Academy of the Hebrew Language, an Israeli government institution, has released a host of new words meant to replace English terms that have infiltrated the language. New words include ugonit (cupcake), minanut (sexism) and ilut (gentrification). As Tablet points out:
Amusingly, in over 60 years of existence, the Academiya [as it is called in Israel] has yet to coin a Hebrew term for its own name. The institution’s enactment in law was delayed for four years because Ben-Gurion objected to this irony.