Before a recent screening of “Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists” at HBO’s headquarters, director Leah Wolchok introduced her debut documentary. Standing behind a mahogany podium and wearing white thick-rimmed glasses, she spoke with a slight undertone of annoyance about how long it took to finish the film. So long, in…
(JTA) — John Kerry hasn’t given up on a two-state solution. But the party responsible for making it happen, the secretary of state and his subordinates make clear, is Israel. A lengthy profile in the New Yorker traces Kerry’s work with Iran, Syria, Israel and the Palestinians, as well as his lingering bitterness over his failed…
Jeffrey Tambor used to be that actor you saw everywhere but couldn’t place. No longer. In January, he won a Golden Globe in the Best Actor in a TV Series category, for his performance as Maura Pfefferman, a Jewish father of three who comes out as transgender, in Amazon’s “Transparent.” In September he took home…
Instragram By now, you’ve surely heard of the uproar of Lena Dunham’s latest New Yorker piece, titled “Dog or Jewish Boyfriend? A Quiz.” In list form, Dunham asks the reader to judge whether it is her pet dog or her Jewish boyfriend (Jack Antonoff of the rock bands Bleachers and Fun) who “doesn’t tip,” “never…
The Anti-Defamation League has called Lena Dunham’s recent controversial piece in the New Yorker “tasteless” and “offensive.” “Dog or Jewish Boyfriend? A Quiz,” a piece by the 28-year-old actress and writer of the popular HBO show “Girls,” is a list of 35 statements that begins by asking the reader “Do the following statements refer to…
Instragram You know the old idea: “You can’t make fun of my little brother…only I can make fun of him?” I mean, I don’t personally because I’m an only child. But that’s not the point. The point is that Lena Dunham can totally make fun of us because she is one of us. She’s Jewish…
Photo courtesy Jewish Book Week London As fiction editor of The New Yorker, Deborah Treisman’s job is one of the most enviable in the literary world. It is certainly one of the most influential. In fact, The New York Times described it as a job that carries the literary clout equivalent of St. Peter at…
“When your parents are dying, it’s not like a baby, where people want to come over and play with the baby. Somebody comes over and brings you a little onesie or stretchy…. What are they going to do — bring Depends? Or a case of Ensure?” That’s Roz Chast, 59, perhaps best known for her…
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