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 Joe Klein has harsh words for Miles Taylor, a very different ‘Anonymous’
Before Miles Taylor, there was Joe Klein. Klein was a reporter at Newsweek when he anonymously published “Primary Colors,” a bestselling roman à clef informed by his coverage of the 1992 Bill Clinton presidential campaign. In the summer of 1996 — after months of denial — Klein admitted he was, in fact, Anonymous. So, what…
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Culture Michael Cohen is on Cameo — here’s what you should make him say
After years of following the every whim of Donald Trump, the man who served as consigliere and pit bull attorney to the president, then called him a racist before Congress, is prepared to say whatever you want him to — for the price of $100. Yes, Michael Cohen has a Cameo. For the uninitiated, Cameo…
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Culture The true grit of the Jews who fought by John Brown’s side
August Bondi, Theodore Wiener and Jacob Benjamin helped the abolitionist cause
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Culture How ‘Borat’ got its sound — an interview with Erran Baron Cohen
Growing up, Erran Baron Cohen and his younger brother, Sacha, would entertain their parents’ guests during Shabbos at their home in London. “Me and Sacha were often quite bored actually,” Baron Cohen said. “We used to make up funny songs on the piano for our own amusement. One was called ‘Schvitzin”, which was about Jews…
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Culture Borat defends Rudy Giuliani over ‘Borat’ scandal
Rudy Giuliani has a new champion in his latest scandal: His name-a Borat. Thursday night, shortly before the final presidential debate and the early release of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev posted a video on his Twitter to defend Giuliani against claims of impropriety arising from a scene in the “Borat” sequel. “What…
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Culture A Quibit (Quick Obit) for Quibi (with apologies to Walt Whitman)
O Quibi! my Quibi! rise up and hear the yells; Rise up—for you the grave is made —for you the content cries, For you the japes and unkind tweets—for you the nets a-crowding, For you they call, the giggling mass, their eager faces turning; Here Quibi! Dear short-form! 2 billion invested! It is some dream…
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Culture ‘Borat 2’ is a riot, but slandering a nation’s history goes too far
Borat was never a victimless enterprise. In “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America,” the Kazakh journalist invited an RV full of frat brothers to reminisce about the days of slavery (they needed zero prompting, save for their companion’s foreign, sympathetic presence). More troublingly, a kindly Jewish couple operating a kosher bed and breakfast provided the venue…
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Culture Is Sinclair Lewis’s 1936 play about American fascism even timelier today?
In 1936, as the United States struggled to overcome the Depression, Hitler pressed ahead with his revival of the German military and fascist forces in Europe continued to erode the norms of public life, Sinclair Lewis debuted the theatrical adaptation of his 1935 novel of “It Can’t Happen Here.” Co-written with playwright John C. Moffitt,…
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Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
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Fast Forward Trump attorney general pick Pam Bondi: 5 things Jews should know
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Opinion As a Jewish biblical scholar in Houston, I’m enraged that Texas is adopting this biblically illiterate new curriculum
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News With a roster of promising athletes, Vienna’s 115-year-old Hakoah Sports Club has found new life
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News Israel reached a ceasefire in Lebanon. Why does Gaza seem so hard?
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Culture Barbra Streisand recorded here — and so did Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and, uh, The Village People
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Fast Forward Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to helm EPA, says he received bomb threat with ‘pro-Palestinian themed message’
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