Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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Culture A King Who Saved Jews From The Holocaust: Remembering Michael I Of Romania
King Michael I of Romania, who died on December 5 at age 96, proved that being a mama’s boy can result in a mitzvah. Three-quarters of a century ago, he defied his country’s Hitler-allied Prime Minister, Ion Antonescu, and worked to save hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust. Through the cooperation of Antonescu,…
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Culture Lilli Hornig Fled Hitler And Helped Develop Atomic Weapons — Then Fought Against Their Use
Lilli Hornig, the Czech-born Jewish chemist who died on November 17 at age 96, showed an exemplary interest in what in the “Pirkei Avot” a book of the Mishnah, is termed g’milut chasadim, or acts of loving kindness. Hornig’s family, many of whom were scientists, fled their homeland in the early 1930s after her father…
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Culture EXCLUSIVE: That Time Adolf Hitler Had A Jewish Neighbor
The English Jewish historian Edgar Joseph Feuchtwanger was born in Munich in 1924. In 1929, Adolf Hitler moved into an apartment on Grillparzerstrasse across the street from Feuchtwanger’s family. “Hitler, My Neighbor: Memories of a Jewish Childhood, 1929-1939” recounts how as a youngster, Feuchtwanger witnessed the rise of Hitler. Feuchtwanger’s previous, much-respected books are about…
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Culture Why This ‘Honorary Jew’ Deserved The Nobel Prize For Literature
Although last year’s Nobel Prize in Literature went to a deserving Jewish candidate, in some respects the prize-giving and receiving process was a shondeh, that ever-current Yiddish word meaning disgrace. Not least when Bob Dylan, the honoree, plagiarized portions of his Nobel Prize lecture from SparkNotes, an online version of CliffsNotes, according to [Slate.] (http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2017/06/did_bob_dylan_take_from_sparknotes_for_his_nobel_lecture.html)…
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Film & TV How Monty Hall Made A Deal For Jewish Charity
Although Monty Hall, who died on September 30 at the age of 96, is chiefly remembered for co-creating and hosting the long-lasting TV game show “Let’s Make a Deal,” first broadcast in 1963, his most enduring legacy may be service to Jewish charities. Born Monte Halparin in Winnipeg to Orthodox Jewish parents, Hall would follow…
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Culture Composer Michael Friedman Was Inspired By His Jewish Origins
Philadelphia-born Michael Friedman, who died on September 9 at age 41 from complications related to HIV/AIDS, was more than just the composer of “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.” Before “Hamilton,” and with a decidedly more ambiguous and less hero-worshiping optic than that mega-hit, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” bowed on Broadway in 2010, highlighting a president who…
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Film & TV Remembering Shelley Berman — A Kafkaesque Comic Of Existential Loneliness
Shelley Berman, who died on September 1 at age 92, was the Gregor Samsa of American comedy. Like the protagonist of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” Berman was alert to the insectification of modern life, whatever removes humanity and sparks rage. Focusing on petty occasions for anger made him the spiritual forefather of comedians, especially Larry David,…
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Culture How The Holocaust Shaped The Career Of The Late, Great Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory, the activist and comedian who died on August 19 at age 84, used tragedies of modern Jewish history to illuminate the civil rights struggles of African-Americans. As described in his memoir, out next month from Amistad Books, Gregory marched and was jailed alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers. From his…
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