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 Amar’e Stoudemire completes his conversion to Judaism
The Jews can always use a good power forward on our team. We now have a great one. Realizing a years-long process of study and engagement with Judaism, Amar’e Stoudemire, the former NBA player now dribbling for Maccabi Tel Aviv, made his final full-court press into the faith on August 26, 2020. Stoudemire announced the…
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Culture Wiley still insists that ‘Jews run the Earth’
British rapper Wiley, who last month went on a 48-hour antisemitic tirade on Twitter before he was banned from the platform, has defended his remarks and insisted his removal from social media proves his point that Jews “run the Earth.” In an August 21 episode of the “1 Po Show,” a YouTube series on the…
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Culture In YIVO’s first digital exhibition, the story of Vilna’s Jews — through the eyes of one girl
“People say I was a naughty child,” 11-year-old Beba Epstein wrote in 1933. She bumped into her parents’ china cabinet, shattering plates. She tore up her cousin Freydke’s best-in-class geography paper. On summer vacation in a resort town, she would run in the streets, and was once nearly hit by a car. We know the…
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Culture Sorry, Lincoln Project. Jared Kushner is not quite the picture of Dorian Gray
Do president’s sons-in-law get portraits in the West Wing? Asking for the Lincoln Project. At press time, the Republican-led anti-Trump group, known for their viral ads excoriating Trump and his enablers, is trending the hashtag #JaredIsEvil. The Jared in question is Kushner, and this time the target is his alleged neglect of states with Democratic…
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Culture Randy Rainbow apologizes for racist and transphobic tweets, cites political harassment
Randy Rainbow has made a name for himself by setting the scandals of the Trump era to music. Now, after dozens of racist and transphobic tweets from several years ago have resurfaced, he has to contend with a scandal of his own. The internet comedian, whose hits include the Carey Underwood riff “Maybe Next Time…
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Fast Forward DC synagogue will pack pews with celeb cutouts on High Holidays
With the High Holidays going virtual across the country, Jews will miss the call of the shofar, the intimacy of a shul setting and — not least of all — the opportunity to schmooze. But the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in D.C. is offering congregants a chance to commune with their famous coreligionists —…
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Culture Post-‘Unorthodox’ fever, two new streaming services vie for Jewish eyes
Millenials and their boomer parents may have different ideas about Israel and how to be Jewish, but two new streaming services for Jewish and Israeli TV and film are banking on the fact that both groups are hungry for good content. A global pandemic and a clamor to find a replacement for “Unorthodox” form the…
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Culture Bernie Sanders’ wall of wood has a surprising Jewish significance
On the first night of the socially-distant 2020 Democratic National Convention, Bernie Sanders held forth before a backdrop that put any Zoom background to shame. Flanked by an American flag and the Vermont state flag, Sanders painted a stark picture of the country’s slide in totalitarianism before a wall of chopped wood. It was so…
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Culture The urban sukkah: In NYC, they’re on rooftops, terraces, sidewalks and more
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Yiddish זום־שמועס: האָבן די רבנים געקעמפֿט קעגן די משׂכּילים? Zoom event: Did the Rabbis wage war against the Enlightenment thinkers?
יוחנן לאָווען וועט רעדן וועגן דער אַנטוויקלונג פֿון די חרמות און קאַמפֿן קעגן די משׂכּילים מצד די פֿרומע קרײַזן
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Yiddish ווי איז שׂימחת־תּורה אַנדערש פֿון שבֿועות? How is Simchat Torah different from Shavuot?
דער עיקר־באַטײַט פֿון ביידע יום־טובֿים איז דאָס קריגן די תּורה, אָבער די שטימונג איז גאָר אַן אַנדערע.
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Fast Forward Lufthansa ordered to pay $4M penalty for denying boarding to 128 Jewish passengers in 2022
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