Aviya Kushner is the Forward’s language columnist and the author of Wolf Lamb Bomb and The Grammar of God. Follow her on Twitter @AviyaKushner.
Aviya Kushner
By Aviya Kushner
-
Culture Did Franz Kafka predict the COVID-19 pandemic?
And other questions raised by a new collection of the inscrutable author’s aphorisms
-
Culture Learning about antisemitism from the people who fought it
A London exhibit at the Wiener Holocaust Library examines the historical context of the world's oldest hatred
-
Culture Four reasons why a racist and antisemitic theory has become so dangerous — and why we need to stop it
The Buffalo massacre represents another red-alarm moment that Jews are obligated to confront
-
Culture For Israel, an extraordinary summit reveals a path to coexistence
While the world pays more attention to an actor slapping a comedian, something remarkable and long unimaginable is happening in Israel. Four Arab leaders are visiting, representing the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain, along with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. And the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates is sounding like…
-
Culture Biden, Putin, Zelenskyy, Penn — and the true nature of obscenity
Let’s talk about what’s obscene. First, consider what President Joe Biden considers “obscene.” “Putin has the gall to say he is “de-Nazifying” Ukraine. This lie isn’t just cynical. It is obscene,” Biden declared in a speech in Warsaw, and later tweeted. How so, one might ask? “President Zelenskyy was democratically elected. He is Jewish —…
-
Culture Kyiv or Kiev? Zelensky or Zelenskyy? For Ukraine, spelling is a political act
As tanks advance and homes burn while the Russian invasion of Ukraine intensifies, the spelling of place names may seem like a minor concern. But spelling — and the English transliteration of it — can have tremendous political significance. Spelling can also indicate how credible a news source is, and it can clarify which side…
-
Culture Poets join together for Ukraine
Over 800 people from all over the world came to hear Ukrainian poetry in the original and in translation in a swiftly organized online reading to support writers whose lives are in danger as Russian forces approach. The event, part of a virtual reading series by Words Together Words Apart, offered a window into the…
-
Culture Claiming “De-Nazification,” Putin’s actions recall other Nazi crimes
As Russia invaded Ukraine, beginning at five in the morning, Vladimir Putin’s statement that his purpose was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine clearly disgusted Ukraine’s first-ever Jewish President. Volodymyr Zelenskyy — whose three great-uncles were murdered in the Holocaust — responded on Twitter that Russia attacked Ukraine just “as Nazi Germany did.” “As of today, our countries…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward After hesitating, Miriam Adelson commits more than $100 million to Trump’s campaign
- 2
Fast Forward While receiving an award at Yeshiva University commencement, John Fetterman disavows his alma mater, Harvard
- 3
Fast Forward 2 students at LA Orthodox school accuse staff member of “inappropriate relationship”
- 4
News HIAS was poised to spend $300k on Gaza aid. Internal divisions stopped it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Protesters rebuild pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia during class reunions
-
Opinion Biden’s bold vision: A chance to turn a brutal war into a visionary future
-
News A Holocaust museum cut a survivor from its speaker’s list — for protesting the war in Gaza
-
Fast Forward Biden announces Israeli plan that would end war in Gaza, and urges Hamas to accept