Ronit elkabetz is the face of Israeli cinema. The 43-year-old actress/director has starred in some of the country’s most acclaimed films over the past 10 years — including Late Marriage in 2001 and 2007’s The Band’s Visit. She has also co-written and directed two films with her brother, Shlomi. Born in a suburb of Haifa to parents of Moroccan descent, she now lives in Paris and Tel Aviv. Her latest performances, in Jaffa and The Girl On The Train, can be seen at the UK Jewish Film Festival, along with a screening of Late Marriage.

A lot of talent, a bit of luck, and a “ridiculous” amount of chutzpah have propelled Jess Robinson on to prime-time television.

At just 26, the impressionist has already appeared in the BBC’s Dead Ringers show and voiced characters on ITV’s Headcases. Now she is appearing, alongside Jon Culshaw and Debra Stephenson, in The Culshaw and Stephenson Show in a coveted Saturday night slot on BBC1.

If you thought we had a lot in common with our Jewish North American counterparts, think again. One Canadian comedian found her experience of moving to London so difficult, she was compelled to write a stand-up show on the subject.

The Only Jew in The Village is, as its author Judy Batalion puts it, “part stand-up, part story telling, part confessional, part rant performance” about her experience of moving to a flat in the Muslim area of Whitechapel in the East End and studying for a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art before embarking on a career in comedy.

‘From treif to kosher,” observes Sue Kelvin. She is looking back on — to use a David Mamet phrase — a life in the theatre. It started with Flying Pig, the company Kelvin co-founded after leaving drama school, and grew into a career which has placed the 50-year-old actress at the top of the list for any director looking to cast a Jewish matriarch.

You have to admit it was an odd piece of casting. Having come to terms with Mr Bean (aka Rowan Atkinson) playing Fagin in the West End production of Oliver!, we have had to adjust to a British-Iranian comedian in the role.

Omid Djalili stepping out as Fagin the Jew is up there with David Bowie playing Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ. Only Jackie Mason being cast as Osama bin Laden could be as controversial.

Think of an artist’s studio and two images come to mind — the humble garret cluttered with canvases and the large, serene space filled with light. Anish Kappor’s studio is like neither of these. The 55-year-old Indian-born sculptor, who is considered one of the world’s greatest living artists, works in five huge industrial units in London, alongside a team of 20 or so assistants.

Over the past week, the commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War have been hard to ignore.

Among all the discussion of Germany’s invasion of Poland, the Phoney War and the Battle of Britain, there is one operation which has been recalled with extra poignancy — one that did not involve military action but rather the movement of hundreds of thousands of children.

It is four months since Nicholas de Jongh wrote his swansong article for the Evening Standard as the paper’s theatre critic. His final duty was a lunch held in his honour by the Critics’ Circle a few weeks ago. After the lunch fellow critic Charles Spencer spoke about how he used to dislike De Jongh when he first knew him, but is very fond of him now. And that’s the thing about Nicholas de Jongh. The better you know him the more you like him.

The Oscar and Pulitzer winning composer Marvin Hamlisch talks to John Nathan about fame, ego and why he’s resigned to not being taken seriously

Marvin Hamlisch only has half an hour to talk. But he is one of life’s talkers and he says more in half an hour than a radio DJ in an entire afternoon.

He is the fake-tanned, cigar smoking, jewellery wearing, spoof supper club entertainer, played by comedian Steve Furst. Here, Lenny Beige gives an exclusive interview to the JC, lifting the lid on his greatest influences, his leisure time and his dark family secrets, ahead of his monthly residency at the Pigalle Club.

l Tell us about your monthly show at the Pigalle