Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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The Schmooze Meijer de Haan: More than Just a Jewish Student of Gauguin’s
The 19th century Dutch painter Meijer de Haan (1852-1895), whose life was cut short by tuberculosis, has been so overshadowed by his mentor Paul Gauguin that even New York’s MoMA, which owns Gauguin’s 1889 portrait of de Haan, misidentifies the sitter as “Jacob Meyer de Haan” (sic). More than merely getting de Haan’s name right,…
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The Schmooze What Did You Do in The War, Zayde? Robert S. Cone of the Filthy Thirteen
Reports that Jack Agnew, a member of the so-called Filthy Thirteen, a US Army combat unit during World War II that inspired Hollywood’s “Dirty Dozen,” has died at age 88, should remind us that the sole Jewish member of that group is still enjoying a well-earned, peaceful retirement in Delray Beach, Florida. Robert S. Cone,…
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The Schmooze Look Jewish? Psychologist Nancy Etcoff Explains It For You
In a world where some Jews still get nose jobs in an attempt to look less Jewish, it is invaluable to have Nancy Etcoff, a clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School, explain why people react the way they do to beauty and appearance. For those already planning their fall calendar, on September 1,…
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The Schmooze Paul Burlin: An Artist Who Deserves Rediscovery
Sometimes posterity can play odd tricks on talented artists. Paul Burlin (1886-1969), born Isadore Berlin in New York, was rediscovered repeatedly during his lifetime, only to fall into subsequent obscurity. Now a new biography by Michelle Wick Patterson, “Natalie Curtis Burlin: A Life in Native and African American Music,” about Burlin’s ethnomusicologist wife, sheds light…
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Culture A Renaissance for Belleville’s Georges Perec, Master of the Lipogram
One of France’s most daring postwar writers, perhaps best known for writing an entire novel without the letter “e” (a lipogram), French-Jewish author Georges Perec, is coming back into vogue. Two of his books were reprinted by publisher David R. Godine last year, and new interest is being taken in his Polish-Jewish roots. Perec, who…
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The Schmooze The Joyous Music and Gloomy Life of Artie Shaw
Nepotism is largely justified in Jewish families, when it is a matter of encouraging real talent. Such is the conclusion to be drawn from Tom Nolan’s “Three Chords for Beauty’s Sake: The Life of Artie Shaw,” a new biography of the clarinetist and bandleader. Born in 1910 as Avraham Ben-Yitzhak Arshawsky on the Lower East…
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The Schmooze Recreating le Marais, Paris’s Jewish Quarter
For over 20 years, the French Jewish author Cyrille Fleischman has offered sweetly nostalgic short story collections, consisting of vignettes from Paris’s time-honored Jewish quarter, le Marais. Without quitting his day job as a lawyer, Fleischman has just produced a charming new story collection for les Éditions Fayard, “Destiny’s Repairman” (“Réparateur de destin”). Set, as…
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The Schmooze The Delightful Humanism of Cello Master Gregor Piatigorsky
The widows of great musicians do not always succeed in establishing identities independent from their late husbands, but Jacqueline Piatigorsky (née de Rothschild) is a definite exception. Now 98, Jacqueline Piatigorsky is a gifted sculptor, creating, among other artworks, a moving portrait of her husband, cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, who died in 1976. A new biography…
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