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 Trump: ‘Yo-Semites.’ Us: ‘Hello!’ Listen to our rap!
In an August 4 speech at the White House, President Trump was invoking the beauty of our national parks when he stumbled on the words “Yosemite’s towering sequoias.” He said “yo-Semites,” to which we say: “Hi!” Here’s the clip pic.twitter.com/b4NtCuEa2z — Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) August 4, 2020 Jewish Twitter, naturally, had a field day. In…
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Culture What Nick Cannon learned from Bari Weiss’ anti-Semitism book
In her review of Bari Weiss’ “How to Fight Anti-Semitism,” Forward deputy culture editor Talya Zax asked, simply enough, “Who is it for?” Well, it might be for Nick Cannon. The actor, who has embarked on a learning tour since making anti-Semitic comments on his podcast, “Cannon’s Class” which led to an end to his…
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Culture In Seth Rogen’s ‘American Pickle,’ a salty tale of preserving (at least some) Jewish traditions
It’s surprisingly easy to read “An American Pickle,” a fable about Jewish continuity as told through the pickled personage of an Eastern European immigrant preserved 100 years in brine, as an allegory for Seth Rogen’s most recent controversy. Based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker novella “Sell Out” and developed with Rogen, who also produced, the…
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Culture Martha Nierenberg, entrepreneur and art restitution plaintiff, dies at 96
Martha Nierenberg, a biochemist and entrepreneur who spent decades fighting her native Hungary for the the return of her family’s Nazi-looted masterpieces, has died at the age of 96. Her family reported that she passed in her sleep on June 27 at a senior living facility in Rye, N.Y. Martha Weiss de Csepel was born…
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Culture Israel made a gamer-friendly tank
Israel’s newest tank might be operated by an Xbox controller. The Carmel, one of three model armored vehicles in the running to be the IDF’s newest mobile weapon of war, was made to be operated by Israel’s young soldiers. As the Washington Post reports, the windowless vehicle on tank treads has an interior that looks…
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Culture Wh-why was Lin-Manuel Miranda wearing a Star of David in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’?
Passion plays, which depict the trial and death of Jesus, have a nasty history. The Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany, for example, was famously propped up by the Nazis for its anti-Semitic caricatures of scheming priests. More recently, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” renewed charges of deicide against the Jewish people. But the…
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Culture ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Mrs. Maisel’ lead a very Jewish Emmy outing for 2020
With 26 nominations, HBO’s “Watchmen,” a prescient superhero meditation on police violence and race in America, leads the field for the 2020 Emmys. It’s a mixed field, with a lot of recognition for actors of color and something at least approaching parity for male and female directors – though the writing categories are woefully lopsided….
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Culture The wonderful, whimsical, interfaith family of the Muppets
In August of 1960, a young man, his wife and their eight-week-old daughter drove into Detroit in a secondhand Rolls Royce. In a moment of mischief, the man asked his friend who was tagging along to take the wheel and drive him to the center of the Motor City. There, he cracked the moonroof and…
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