PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Daveed Diggs gifts us a fresh Hanukkah song — and a puppy
Look, the Hanukkah song book has a lot of vacancies when compared to its seasonal neighbor. “Sevivon Sov Sov Sov,” kinda slaps, but we could always use an updated anthem. Enter “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs with a new tune that fully captures the thrills — and many disappointments — of the Festival of Lights. The…
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Culture In an English sea town, a 91-year-old synagogue needs saving
Read this article in Yiddish Francesca Ter-Berg has lived in the coastal English town of Margate for a year and a half. It took her over a year to find the local shul. It was hidden on a backstreet and had been shuttered for years. Soon after discovering it, she learned it was set to…
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Culture The real ‘Mank’ hated Hitler and helped refugees — he was also an isolationist
Holed up at a dusty ranch in Victorville, California, with a full-leg cast, screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz has been self-medicating as he works his way through a draft of “Citizen Kane.” When his secretary, Rita Alexander, learns he’s sneaked booze into the guest residence, she confronts his accomplice, a German nurse. “Frieda, you mustn’t let…
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Culture The terrifying marriage of convenience between Israel and evangelical Zionists
At an August rally in Wisconsin, Donald Trump ditched the dog whistle of Jewish control and said the quiet part out loud. “We moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem,” Trump said to cheers at an Oshkosh airport. “That’s for the evangelicals.” Trump then paused and mused on a fact that struck him as curious:…
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Culture There’s no way I can write a normal tribute to Woody Allen
Few still-living artists have tested the premise of the Death of the Author as much as Woody Allen — not so much for what he did, but what he’s accused of doing. While as a filmmaker, Allen, who turns a vital 85 today, has cemented as indelible a cinematic persona as Chaplin’s Tramp, in the…
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Culture Looking for the truth in Gaza — through a camera lens
Jehad al-Saftawi grew up in Gaza. The field in front of his boyhood home was used to launch rockets into Israel. As he approached manhood, he witnessed Israel rain down rockets of its own, leveling apartment blocks. To get the full picture of where he comes from, Saftawi insists on making both of these truths…
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Culture How America’s first Jew gave the turkey its name
Author’s Note: This article, detailing the mysterious life of America’s first Jew, was originally published in 2018. Among the interesting trivia about Luis de Torres’ journey from Spain is his purported naming of the North American turkey, a theory that, combined with his pilgrim-like voyage to escape persecution, make it appropriate Thanksgiving Day reading. For…
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Culture Monolith discovered in Utah wilderness has strong ‘2001’ energy
It’s a mystery some cinephiles may not want solved: Who — or what — placed a towering metal monolith in the middle of Utah desert? On Nov. 18, officers for Utah’s Department of Public Safety discovered the 10 to 12-foot tall edifice, which looks like a stainless steel prototype of Stanley Kubrick’s famously cryptic monolith…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish דער אתרוג ווי אַ סגולה צו האָבן קינדער — און נאָך סוכּות־טראַדיציעסThe etrog as a charm to bear children, and other Sukkot traditions
ייִדן האָבן באַשיט די ערד פֿון דער סוכּה מיט פֿײַנעם געלן זאַמד
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Opinion On Yom Kippur, my brother-in-law is still a hostage. How do I atone for that?
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Fast Forward Ta-Nehisi Coates says Harris funding Gaza war as first Black female president would be ‘nightmare’
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Fast Forward Family recovers Monet pastel generations after Nazi looting
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