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NEW HAVEN — For two Jewish tennis players, New Haven is a great place to stop by on the road to the U.S. Open. American Jesse Levine, the 106th ranked mens player in the world, and Israeli Dudi Sela, ranked 75, spent last week at the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament at Yales Connecticut Tennis Center in New haven, before heading off to New York to take their place in the main mens draw in the U.S. Open, which kicked off on Aug. 25.

Levine, 20, was born in Ottawa, Canada and moved with his family to Boca Raton, Fla. when he was thirteen, training at the Chris Evert Tennis Academy and at the Bollettieri Academy. The 5 9 Levine attended the Hillel Academy, a Jewish day school in Canada. He keeps a kosher home, often wears a Magen David around his neck. His successful juniors career included winning the Wimbledon doubles championship in 2005, and reaching the quarterfinals in singles that same year. Levine briefly attended the University of Florida in 2007, where he was 24-1, but withdrew in August 2007 to turn professional.He moved up in the rankings from 483 a year ago, to his current rank of 106. This year, he advanced to the second round at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open, and he won a Challenger event at Bradenton, Fla.

Levine was lucky in New Haven. He did not initially secure a spot in the main mens draw; Levine, playing sick in the qualifying rounds, was ousted in the second round of the qualifiers. Once Juan Martin Del Porto withdrew from the tournament, Levine was given a lucky loser spot, which entitled him to a spot in the main draw and a bye in the opening round. He went on to win his second round match against Spains Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-0, 6-3. Levines luck continued in the third round when Steve Darcis of Belgium withdrew due to back problems. He advanced to the quarter finals against American Mardy Fish, number 35 in the world. While Levine was defeated 6-3, 7-6, he was delighted to make it to his first quarterfinals of a major tournament. Jesse is a good young junior with a bright future, noted Fish.

Levine has enjoyed his involvement with Israeli players and members of various Jewish communities while on the professional tour.I have a lot of contact with the Israeli players, like Ram, Erlich, Sela and Levy. They sometimes ask me when I will play for Israel in the Davis Cup, he said.

He also appreciates the Jewish fans who cheer for him. At the tournament in Washington last week, they cheered and said things like, Come on, man, your opponent hasnt even had his bar mitzvah yet!

Israelis Moving Up
While Israeli Noam Okun lost in the qualifying rounds and did not make it in to the Pilot Pen main draw, Israeli Dudi Sela, won his first round match against American Donald Young, 6-4, 6-2. Sela lost in the second round to hard hitting left hander, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

Sela, the first Israeli man in seven years to break in to the top 100, is proud to represent Israel in tournaments around the world. And he has enjoyed the support he receives from Jewish communities around the world. It is always very good to see Jews supporting me. I won a recent tournament in Vancouver because the Jewish community came out to support me! he said. Sela, and fellow Israelis Andy Ram, Yoni Erlich, and 24th-seededShahar Peer will play in the upcoming U.S. Open.

Though upset that he was not invited to play for Israel in the Olympics, Sela is particularly proud of his two recent matches in the David Cup which each lasted more than five hours and resulted in victories against Chile.

It was a very good experience for me, and for my career – hey were my biggest wins so far, and they gave me a big push he said.

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WOODBRIDGE — When Debbie Roth wanted to make Shakespeare come alive for her eighth grade English class at Ezra Academy in Woodbridge, she had a clever idea: Why not bring in a real actor who has performed Shakespeare on the stage? And so she did – enlisting the aid of Bruce Altman, a veteran actor of stage and screen who also happens to be the parent of an Ezra Academy alum.

Altman readily agreed to set aside time from his busy acting and auditioning schedule to visit the school, and did so twice – once to teach students about Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, and once to critique the students as they performed various scenes from the play.

“For the kids to see a professional actor perform Shakespeare inspires them to read the play in a different way”, observes Roth, who has taught English and Spanish at the Amity Road day school for the past 13 years. “The first time Bruce came, he talked about the play and about the character of Shylock in particular. During Altmans second visit, he asked the students to reconfigure the room to resemble a stage. This isn’t English class – it is an acting workshop,” Altman playfully informed the class.

Asked if he was required to memorize lines for auditions, Altman said, “not for TV or movies, but usually for plays – I usually use a monologue of Richard the Second.”

Calling upon the students to read selections from the play, Jeff Spivack of Hamden shoe Lorenzos speech because, as he explained to Altman, “It is really poetic – about the moon and music. And it is really up to ones own interpretation.” Altman approved.

“That was beautiful,” he said. “Im really touched by it!” Before Spivack performed his selection a second time, Altman suggested that he take a moment to relax his body.

“Take in the moonlight,” he counselled. “Really imagine that moon. This is a really good audition piece – full of smells and feelings.”

Elizabeth Skalka was next to perform. She chose Shylock because, as she explained to Altman, “There is so much feeling between Shylock and Antonio. He has been holding it in for so long – now, he can tell him how he really feels.”

“That was great – did you notice there were moments when your hands moved?” asked Altman after watching her for several moments.

As Altman listened, he applied lessons learned from Jewish texts and Jewish history to the acting process. For example, he told them, “Memorization is great – the great Jewish scholars memorized long passages from the Talmud.”

After Ariel Rock presented Shylocks speech in Act III, Altman asked what the student thought Shakespeare meant when he wrote: “If you prick a Jew, do we not bleed, if you poison us, do we not die?” Explained Rock: “[It means] that Jews are the same as everyone else.”

Altman then engaged the class in a discussion of the blood libel and the myth of Jews poisoning the wells. Altman and family regularly attend the egalitarian Shabbat minyan at Yale University’s Slifka Center.

As the bell rang, Altman wrapped up by telling the class that it is okay to have differing interpretations of the text. “I got some of my best ideas when I saw someone doing something I didnt agree with. So Lital, it is okay to play the part cynically, even though Lizzy is saying, Play it more depressed!”

Altman, who will soon appear in Recount, an HBO movie about the 2000 Bush/Gore Florida election that will air in May, was blown away by the lesson.

“It was a powerful experience for me. I am really impressed with the students. They are so alive, and comfortable responding. Mrs. Roth has done a great job.” 

The students shared Altmans sentiment about the lesson. As they filed out of the room for the next period, they offered careful analysis of the class.

“Bruce gave us new insight into how to act and understand and feel the text”, noted Solomon Botwick Reis. Jeff Spivack concurred. “It was interesting to get an actors point of view on such an old text”, he said.

Then, as if to remind the class that they are still kids, Josh Grove smiled and noted proudly, “It was cool to know an actor!”

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MIDDLETOWN — For seven special nights this semester, Wesleyan University will seem more like artsy Tel Aviv than a college town in Connecticut. Thanks to the tireless work of Professor Dalit Katz and the Ring Family, Wesleyan will screen seven cutting-edge, contemporary Israeli films as part of the Ring Family Wesleyan Israel Film Festival. Each film will be screened in a new, 400 seat cinema on the Wesleyan campus. And each film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with a well-known writer, director or film critic.

For Katz, who teaches three Hebrew courses at Wesleyan, the film festival is a labor of love.

“I integrate the film festival into my Hebrew curriculum,” said Katz. “All of my students are required to see all of the films. They then meet with the director in class and have a discussion in Hebrew. Students must also produce a response to the film, in Hebrew.”

Katz said she is pleased that her students don’t simply learn Hebrew language-they gain valuable exposure to Israeli culture.

“This combined series brings the best of Israel to the viewers-the films are multi cultural, pluralistic, artistic and creative,” explains Katz. “The artistic and creative community in Israel is flourishing-filmmakers are not afraid to take chances. They are very innovative, and they offer fresh angles.

“The Wesleyan film festival is designed to educate the community about the rich cultural life of Israeli society. Each film illuminates a different aspect of modern contemporary Israeli life, from life in modern Tel Aviv to life at the kibbutz. One film deals with the life of an immigrant from Sudan and another film deals with the life of foreign workers in Israel. Israel at 60 is a very hybrid and complex society which is well reflected in all the films,” Katz said.
Katz was pleased with the response to the movie “The Secrets,” screened on February 4 as a “preview” to the actual film festival.

“There was a great turnout, and the movie was so beautiful, such a spiritual experience.”

The film takes place partially in a midrasha, a Jewish women’s seminary, in Safed, and deals with the friendship of two Israeli women from very different backgrounds, their relationship with a sick French woman, and Kabbalah.

“The subject matter was new to the audience and very revealing. Avi Nesher (the director) was just splendid in the question and answer session—so articulate, so smart and he connected so well to the audience.”

As a favor to Katz, Nesher allowed her and Wesleyan to be the first in the United States to screen the film; Nesher then co-taught with Katz in her advanced Hebrew tutorial.

Nesher, writer, producer and director of such well-known films as “Turn Left at the End of the World,” “Blind Date” and “The Point Men,” was born in Tel Aviv. He attended junior high school and high school in New York City, where his father was stationed as a member of the Israeli diplomatic corp. Nesher graduated Manhattan’s prestigious Ramaz High School and took courses at Columbia University before returning to Israel to complete his army service.

Nesher, who has been writing movies since the 1970s, is particularly proud of the state of Israeli films, which he says have become “very interesting, lucid, and accessible.”

Nesher explains that the current funding system has greatly helped the Israeli film industry.

“The government covers 25 percent or more of the budget, Israeli television contributes, as well as private donors,” he explained.

Nesher further explains that, when people first saw such films as his “Turn Left at the End of the World, “ a film set in Israel in the 1960s dealing with relationship between immigrants to Israel from Morocco and India, “they were really surprised to see that this is Israel.”

“Now,” he reports, “audiences come to expect such films-they are no longer patronizing, coming out to see Israeli films out of sympathy-theynow watch Israeli movies like they would Spanish, French or Serbian movies-and they view them as good or bad-not Israeli!”

“They are not your grandfather’s Israeli movies,” Nesher said. “They are a whole new generation of films.”

Upcoming films screened as part of the Ring Family Wesleyan Israel Film Festival will include:

“Year Zero” on Feb. 25, “Someone to Run With” on March 3, “Live and Become” on March 24, and “Jellyfish” on April 29. All films will be shown at 7:30pm at the Wesleyan Film Department, 301 Washington Terrace, Middletown.

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