Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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The Schmooze ‘On the Brink of Oblivion’: Paula Jacques’s Egyptian Lore
Paula Jacques, the Cairo-born French novelist of Egyptian Jewish descent, has long been a lively presence on the Paris literary scene. Born Paula Abadi in 1949, she moved to France as a teenager, after rebelling against the “regimentation” of a “Marxist kibbutz” in Israel during a short stay there. Less regimented, although doubtless just as…
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The Schmooze Mother and Daughter of Fashion
The Strasbourg-born French Jewish novelist Eliette Abécassis has been inspired by themes from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Shoah. Yet Abécassis, daughter of the noted Morocco-born French historian of philosophy Armand Abécassis, seemed to switch subject matter in 2008 when she wrote “Mother and Daughter: a Novel” (Les éditions Albin Michel) about the fashion…
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The Schmooze ‘Dear Miss’: The Correspondence of Alice Ferrières, Righteous Among the Nations
In 1964, the first French woman to be honored by the Yad Vashem commission with the title “Righteous among the Nations” was a math teacher at a girls’ school in a remote town in France’s mountainous Auvergne region. Alice Ferrières of Murat was a Protestant whose family was affected by 1685’s revocation of the Edict…
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Books Jewish Comics and Graphic Novels, From One Generation to the Next
Fans of comic books and graphic novels are mourning the death of Harvey Pekar, who died today in his Cleveland home at the age of 70. Pekar was mainly known for authoring the autobiographical series “American Splendor,” which documented his lower-middle class Jewish upbringing in Ohio. Pekar also wrote “Our Cancer Year,” after being diagnosed…
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The Schmooze Arnold Schoenberg, Zionist
Danielle Cohen-Levinas, married to Michaël Levinas, the composer-pianist son of French Jewish philosopher Emanuel Levinas, is ideally placed to evaluate the Jewish inspiration of the composer Arnold Schoenberg. A professor of aesthetics at the University of Paris IV–Sorbonne, Cohen-Levinas has just produced a groundbreaking study, “Schoenberg’s Century” for Les éditions Hermann. In addition to editing…
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The Schmooze Who Is Sylvia? What Is She?
In February, the Chicago Tribune stopped printing the syndicated comic strip “Sylvia,” by Chicago-based artist Nicole Hollander, and cries of outrage echoed across Lake Michigan. The protesters included detective story author Sara Paretsky, who wrote to the Tribune: “There are precious few women cartoonists, and Nicole is the only one with a daily strip who…
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The Schmooze Ami Bouganim’s Flavorful Tales From Fès
Born in Essaouira, Morocco, Ami Bouganim moved as a child with his family to Casablanca. There, he grew up on a street named after two Moroccan Jewish victims of the Nazis, Félix and Max Guedj, before relocating to Israel as a teenager. His first book, from Paris’s Les éditions Jean-Claude Lattès, was 1981’s acclaimed “Tales…
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The Schmooze Jews and Bulls: A French Philosopher Defends the Corrida
When Jews try to fight bulls, the results can end in tears, but the simple desire to watch bullfights has a more ambiguous outcome, as proven by the latest book by the French Jewish philosopher Francis Wolff. An author of academic works on Aristotle and Socrates who teaches in Paris, Wolff should not be confused…
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