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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The Schmooze Remembering Carrie Fisher, and 6 Other Things to Read, Watch and Do This Weekend
Whether you hated 2016 or loved it, take some time this weekend to celebrate its exit in style – through plenty of New Year’s events, timely movie screenings, and a thoughtful look back at the year’s best moments 1) Remember Carrie Fisher Actress, author, and mental health advocate Carrie Fisher passed away on Tuesday, and…
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Culture Richard Adams Wrote Against Intolerance — For Jews, and Everyone Else
After one of their number predicts the destruction of their home, a group of brave individuals sets out in search of a new safehaven. On their way, they escape dystopian societies — one reminiscent of Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” in which the life of the many depends on the…
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Culture Carrie Fisher Wasn’t Just a ‘Star Wars’ Icon — She Was an Author and Advocate, Too
In 1987, a Los Angeles Times photographer asked Carrie Fisher if it would hurt her image to pose on a bar stool. The actress and writer wasn’t concerned. “There is not one area of sensationalism that I have not wandered into and trespassed wildly,” she told reporter Nikki Finke. Fisher, who passed away this morning…
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49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Indecent
In May I left a preview for “Indecent” at Manhattan’s Vineyard Theater uncharacteristically silent. The play was advertised as a tale about Sholem Asch’s “God of Vengeance,” a Yiddish play that famously closed after one night on Broadway, with its entire cast arrested on charges of obscenity. “Indecent,” co-created by playwright Paula Vogel and director…
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Culture When a Jewish Radio Icon Moved the Rockettes to New York
Think of the Rockettes, and you think of New York: Radio City Music Hall, lit up in the wintertime, glittering decadence tucked away inside. But the Rockettes, currently making headlines over their union’s unforgiving response to a dancer’s concerns about performing at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, wasn’t always Big Apple-based. They made a home in…
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Culture Chrismukkah, and 5 Other Things to Read, Watch, and Do This Weekend
As you settle in for the long Chrismukkah weekend, it’s a great time to catch up on reading, binge watch your favorite TV shows (or a great new one) and, for the daring, venture outside for some magical holiday fun. Our best picks, below. 1) Celebrate Chrismukkah! This year, Hanukkah starts on Christmas Eve for…
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Culture The Secret Jewish History of ‘The Nutcracker’
A memory of pure magic: I am eight years old, dressed in a special red fleece cap and cape, dashing to a stage door at the Denver Center for Performing Arts with snow falling around me. Backstage is magical, a cavernous room dotted with enchanting, candy-colored set pieces and filled with tutu-clad ballerinas. I was…
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Culture Superstition Vies With Faith at Yiddish New York
There they are, in Sanford Drob’s “Expulsion:” a man and woman, draped in animal skins, seized with grief – the woman gazing forward, determined but horrified, the man covering his face with his hand – and wearing armbands emblazoned with yellow Jewish stars, the word “Jude” at their centers. It’s a painting that, despite the…
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