Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
The Schmooze Amazing Jewish Racers Win ‘Amazing Race’
Although they will never displace the affection felt by old time radio fans for the 1940s radio comedian Minerva Pious, the Rhode Island-born Jewish brothers Daniel and Jordan Pious have been guaranteed their 15 minutes of fame. Yesterday it was announced that the Piouses won the $1 million top prize in the grueling CBS reality…
-
The Schmooze ‘The Wandering Jew Has Arrived’: French Journalist Albert Londres Visits Tel Aviv
The great French journalist Albert Londres (1884-1932), whose subjects ranged from prison conditions to mental hospitals to the Sino-Japanese War, chose one of his most fascinating themes in “The Wandering Jew Has Arrived” (“Le juif errant est arrivé”), an on-the-spot account of a 1929 trip through Jewish neighborhoods in England, Eastern Europe, and Tel Aviv….
-
The Schmooze One Thousand and One Nights: Too Jewish for Some Egyptians?
It was reported today that a group of Islamist lawyers in Egypt is calling for “The Arabian Nights,” also known as “One Thousand and One Nights,” to be banned as obscene. A new 3-volume translation of “Alf laila wa-laila” will coincidentally be published by Penguin Classics on May 25, complete with all of the time-honored…
-
The Schmooze Clara Malraux: A Feisty Writer to Remember
The French Jewish writer Clara Malraux (1897-1982) deserves to be remembered for her two ardent, sadly untranslated, books on Israel, “Kibbutz Civilization” (“Civilisation du kibboutz,” 1964), and “From the Four Corners of the Earth: Twelve Israeli Encounters” (“Venus des quatre coins de la terre: douze rencontres en Israël,” 1971). Instead, as a stylish new biography…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
- 2
Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
- 3
Culture She was my Hebrew school bully — and I finally learned what happened to her
- 4
Opinion American Jews were played — now what?
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Why a Gaza doctor’s striking video about starving babies has gone viral
-
Fast Forward Alan Bergman, Oscar-winning lyricist and ‘father figure’ to Barbra Streisand, dies at 99
-
Nazi collaborator monuments Nazi collaborator monuments in Poland
-
Nazi collaborator monuments Nazi collaborator monuments in Mexico
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
