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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Film & TV In ‘The Other Story,’ a tale of forgiveness as faith and family collide
_Author’s note: ‘The Other Story’ is playing September 28 as part of the Marlene Meyerson JCC’s online “Forgive Me Film-a-thon.” Marking the occasion, we’ve republished our review from July 1, 2019._ When children leave the insular world of Haredi Judaism, many parents sit shiva for them. Some choose to not even speak the child’s name…
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Film & TV In ‘Tehran,’ an agent caught between Iran and Israel can’t find her way home
In an early episode of the spy thriller “Tehran,” a Mossad agent makes a house call. Yael Ashrafi (Liraz Charhi), the handler of hacker and series protagonist Tamar Rabinyan, pays a visit to her Mr. Rabinyan. She wants to know if Tamar might still have family in Iran and if, after ditching a reckless contact…
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Culture Documentarian Ric Burns on why there will never be another Oliver Sacks
In 2015, shortly before he died at the age of 82, Oliver Sacks was eating from a Tupperware container of green Jell-O, when he decided to tell a room full of people something deeply revealing. “Time was – it doesn’t occur now, but it used to occur until a few years ago – when I…
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Culture Why did The Guardian say Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘abandoned’ her faith?
In the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, obituaries across the country lauded the jurist for her contributions to America’s judiciary system and civic life. But one contained a claim about Ginsburg’s personal life that left some Jews puzzled, and others outraged. The Guardian’s September 18 obituary initially declared that the justice had “abandoned her…
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Culture Mel Gibson still working on that ‘Passion of the Christ’ sequel. But what’s the audience for that?
He’s baaaack. Hot off a revival of past antisemitic remarks, Mel Gibson is reportedly hard at work on a sequel to his 2004 antisemitic opus, “The Passion of the Christ.” Jim Caviezel, who played the role of Jesus in the film, told Breitbart in a recent interview that his character, while having suffered through unspeakable…
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Culture ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and all things Jewish from a very socially-distanced Emmys
Most Emmys nights, the stars are out in force. In 2020, they stayed in, and didn’t so much take home awards as have them delivered to their doorstep. Host Jimmy Kimmel worked the room at an empty Staples Center, bare but for a skeleton camera crew and the occasional socially-distanced celebrity cameo. Yet for the…
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Fast Forward On Rosh Hashanah, Jews mourn the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
News of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death at the age of 87 reached Jews right as many were preparing for the start of our holiest season: It was the first night of Rosh Hashanah, and the beginning of the Jewish New Year. And so, a time of joy and sweetness became something else….
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Culture Woody Allen’s latest looks just like the one before it, and the one before that…
“I’ve had a chance to look at my life over the last few weeks, and I realize I’ve made a lot of bad decisions.” This line, delivered by Wallace Shawn, toward the end of a trailer for Woody Allen’s “Rifkin’s Festival,” premiering at the San Sebastian Film Festival September 18, would appear to be the…
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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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Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
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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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Fast Forward Trump has vilified George Soros. He just picked the Jewish billionaire’s protege for Treasury Secretary.
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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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