Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at zax@forward.com or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Talya ZaxOpinion Editor
By Talya Zax
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Culture Britain Just Returned Iraqi Artifacts. What Does That Mean For The Jewish Archive?
The eight artifacts were found in London in 2003, the same year in which Iraq’s National Museum was looted in the wake of the American invasion. Between 2,000 and 5,000 years old, the sacred objects — which include clay cones inscribed with cuneiform script, a shard of a ceremonial weapon and a marble pendant —…
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Culture How Much Did Hitler’s Speeches Really Help The Nazis?
Adolf Hitler was renowned for his persuasiveness as a speaker. “Here was a born natural orator,” wrote future Irish ambassador to Berlin Daniel Binchy after seeing Hitler speak in 1921. “He began slowly, almost hesitatingly, stumbling over the construction of his sentences, correcting his dialect pronunciation. Then all at once he seemed to take fire.”…
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The Schmooze ‘BlacKkKlansman,’ Randy Newman In L.A. And More To Read, Watch And Do This Weekend
I spent last Saturday at a truly raucous wedding, so my plans for the forthcoming weekend are heavy on sleep and light on, well, everything else. If you, unlike me, are planning to be out and about this weekend, read on for the best weekend events in New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los…
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The Schmooze Vilna Dubs Itself ‘G-Spot of Europe’ — Is the G for ‘Genocide?’
Hit a rut in your love life? Partner no longer satisfying your needs? Why not buckle up and head to Vilna, where 90% of Jewish residents were murdered during the Holocaust, to spice things up? Ah, yes: The folks who came up with a new ad campaign for Vilna, now known as Vilnius, might want…
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Film & TV As Robert Redford Retires, Revisiting His Most Jewish Moments
Yes, we know: Robert Redford, razor-jawlined golden boy of American cinema, is not Jewish. And yet! The actor and director, who announced his intention to retire from the former vocation on August 6, has spent many years meaningfully adjacent to American Jewish culture. He romanced Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were,” served as Paul…
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The Schmooze Jules Feiffer, ‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’ And More To Read, Watch And Do This Weekend
Happy August! As we look forward to the fast-encroaching autumn, make the most of the remaining gorgeous days of summer and get outside. And before your hibernation reflexes kick in, take advantage of the best of this weekend’s cultural offerings in New York City, Washington, D.C, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as the best…
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Culture In Anton Rubinstein’s ‘Demon,’ A Moving Examination Of Exile
The title character of Anton Rubinstein’s opera “Demon,” appearing at Bard SummerScape through August 5, is an anomaly. He’s not really interested in sowing evil. He doesn’t yearn for heaven; he always found it boring. He’s profoundly skeptical of the unquestioning worship of God. He doesn’t care for the idea of divine love, convinced only…
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Culture Anton Rubinstein, Composer And Pianist, Wowed The World. How Did We Forget Him?
The first performance of Anton Rubinstein’s opera “The Demon” at London’s Covent Garden was memorable — to say the least. A spurt of flame, a New York Times reporter reminisced in 1893, “burst out from the Demon’s den, and set the adjoining scenery on fire.” Rubinstein was conducting and helped put out the fire, an…
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