Stars of David

November 09, 2011 - Michael Elkin, Arts & Entertainment Editor

And all that jazz -- and then some: The Temple University Jazz Band is making great sounds -- and major noise -- on the CD front. The group -- which includes Carl Moritz on drums and Daniel Goldstein on trumpet -- has just come out with "To Thad With Love: A Tribute to Thad Jones," saluting the legendary trumpet player. Pretty heady stuff, but then they're used to scaling the heights: The acclaimed group has already performed at Lincoln Center and at the Kimmel Center, as well as at the Hague Jazz Festival in Amsterdam. ...

Aaron Lazar

Sure, everyone's got their eyeballs set to see how Leonardo DiCaprio transforms from pretty-boy actor to sourpuss J. Edgar in the Clint Eastwood film, opening Nov. 11, about the only FBI director ever to wear tutus. But at least one local gang has its eyes on another actor in the movie: Aaron Lazar, whose Cherry Hill, N.J., family and friends are sure to run out for his performance as David Wilentz, the Jewish prosecutor whose misconduct in suborning perjury from witnesses helped send Bruno Richard Hauptmann to the electric chair for the Lindbergh baby murder. Wonder if Wilentz gets to sing. ...

Head of the class: Dr. Kenneth J. Weiss of the University of Pennsylvania's psychiatry faculty has been honored by the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law with its prestigious Outstanding Teacher in a Forensic Psychiatry Program Award. ...

Elliot Ratzman, a Jewish studies teacher at Temple U., and Lewis Gordon, who heads up the Center for Afro-Jewish Studies, also at Temple, are moderators of "Passing: Religion, Politics & Peoplehood," a symposium at the center on Nov. 14 marking the 50th anniversaries of the publications of Black Like Me and The Wretched of the Earth. ... Israeli Oranit Solomonov, a mentally challenged middle-aged woman who has been living in Philly for more than 20 years, is, in a way, starting over. Since studying at the Oasis Art Studio in Center City -- the studio is equipped to teach challenged students -- she is having her own brush with fame: Following a number of exhibits here and in New York, Solomonov will show her art at Congregation Shir Ami Bucks County in Newtown this Sunday, Nov. 13, beginning at 10 a.m. Portrait of a happy woman? That would be her beaming mom, Lidia. ...

Dr. Kenneth J. Weiss

Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink? Such problems that Shakespeare had. OK, bard of beverages, things have changed -- especially if you're looking for a sparkling kosher kind: Sparkling Ayala's Herbal Water -- created by Dr. Ayala Laufer-Cahana in her Wynnewood kitchen -- has just been named winner of the Best New Beverage Award at Kosherfest's New Product Competition. Wet and wild: For Ayala, alas, the trophy cup is more than half-full. ...

Did you get your invitation to take part in the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation's NetWORKS gathering? (Too late; it wraps Nov. 10 in Boulder, Colo.) These Philadelphia area residents did, making an elite list of fewer than 100 invited nationally to help "harness the power of networks to empower young Jewish adults." Having their Rocky Mountain high for world betterment: Ross Berkowitz, Tribe 12; David Gloss, Here's My Chance; Wayne Kimmel, Artists & Instigators; Dmitriy Moverguz, DAVAI Association; and Nati Passow, Jewish Farm School. ...

Money makes the world go round: The local America-Israel Chamber of Commerce is offering a chamber quartet, serenading four health care industry movers and shakers at a Nov. 15 shindig: Dr. Alberto Esquenazi of MossRehab; Banu Onaral of Drexel University;Harry Lukens of Lehigh Valley Health Network; and Dr. David Nash of the Jefferson School of Population Health of Thomas Jefferson University. ...

Toby Mazer

The amazing Mazer is one way to describe the life track of this year's winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Delaware Valley Stroke Council: Toby Mazer's efforts on behalf of the council and its cause over the years have been herculean. She will receive her honor at the council's Stars for Stroke Gala and Auction on Nov. 12. ...

Who better a "Star" these days than Jersey "boy" Gov. Chris Christie, whose recent announcement that he'll be visiting Israel drew this remark from Bill Maher on HBO's Real Time: "It will be Christie's first trip abroad -- if you don't count the International House of Pancakes."