PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at grisar@forward.com and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture ‘Twilight Zone’ For Brett Kavanaugh? Rod Serling Is Turning Over In His Grave.
Anne Serling, the daughter of “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling is speaking out against the way Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has invoked her father’s iconic series. Referring to accusations made by Julie Swetnick on September 26, 2018, Kavanaugh mocked the allegations, which describe his high school circle as having engaged in nonconsensual group sex…
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Film & TV ‘Scaffolding’ Shows Another Side Of Israeli Masculinity
This weekend much of America was interrogating questions of masculinity. Following Brett Kavanaugh’s explosive display at his Senate hearings on Thursday, when toxic masculinity and male privilege seized the dais, many men and women are scrambling to find a suitable, constructive alternative. Writer-director Matan Yair’s debut feature film, “Scaffolding,” which premiered in New York September…
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Culture UB40 Has A Bit Of A Jewish Past — Along With A Role In Kavanaugh Drama
It appears the young Brett Kavanaugh liked reggae — but maybe not as much as he liked beer. It’s now emerged that the embattled Supreme Court nominee was involved in a bar fight with a man he believed to be the lead singer of the British reggae group UB40. Oy. We could use a drink….
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Film & TV Matthew Weiner Doesn’t Remember Misconduct With ‘Mad Men’ Writer
Matthew Weiner was reflecting on his management style this Yom Kippur, but continues to deny charges of misconduct involving a female employee. In a Vanity Fair profile released in advance of the “Mad Men” creator’s new Amazon series, “The Romanoffs,” Joy Press, the piece’s writer, noted that Weiner appeared “palpably nervous, his conversation a tangle…
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Culture How A Lost 1955 Bar Mitzvah Album And Its Owner Were Reunited
On Thursday, September 20, 2018 at the Jewel-Osco supermarket in Chicago, Jenni Spinner, a freelance writer and editor, found a 1955 Bar Mitzvah album on top of a stack of Lagunitas IPA 12 packs in the liquor department. What such an interesting personal item was doing there we still don’t know, but thanks to some…
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Theater ‘Hoaxocaust’ Is As Controversial As It Sounds
Barry Levey wants a Jewish identity free of victimhood. Confronting his brother’s interfaith marriage, his mother’s objection to the union and his LatinX boyfriend’s insistence that the Jewish story is no longer one of persecution, he begins to wonder: What would it be like if the Holocaust never happened? “Imagine how much easier life would…
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Culture Philip Roth Gets The Memorial He Wanted At The New York Public Library
On September 25, 2018, Philip Roth, a titan of American letters received a memorial service at the New York Public Library at Bryant Park. The Associated Press reports that hundreds gathered to celebrate the memory of the late author, who passed away in May at the age of 85. Among the attendees were writers Salman…
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Theater See The Original Costume Sketches For ‘Fiddler On The Roof’
The iconic look of “Fiddler on the Roof,” from its Broadway debut to the 1976 film, is due in no small part to the show’s original costume designer, Patricia Zipprodt. 30 photos of Zipprodt’s design sketches for the musical’s 1964 premiere, part of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ collection and recently…
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