Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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Culture For Mort Sahl, being Jewish meant being part of the opposition
The American Jewish standup comedian Mort Sahl, who died Oct. 26 at age 94, provided spontaneous garrulity that first galvanized audiences during the tight-lipped Eisenhower era. At a time when Senator Joseph McCarthy dominated Washington, D.C. politics, Sahl represented free speech. The English Jewish author Jonathan Miller opined that Sahl and other Jewish comedians made…
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Culture Who does hummus belong to — and could it have the power to bring peace to the Middle East?
Hummus, the dish of cooked chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and spices is a national favorite in Israel and across the Levant. Cherished alike by diners of different faiths, hummus became the unlikely center of so-called Hummus Wars in 2008, when a proprietary spat arose between Lebanese and Israeli restauranteurs. This and related matters are…
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Culture In Brazil, 8,000 Christians have adopted Orthodox Jewish customs — a scholar is trying to figure out why
Manoela Carpenedo, a native of Southern Brazil, is an anthropologist and sociologist of religion. Her latest book “Becoming Jewish, Believing in Jesus: Judaizing Evangelicals in Brazil” (Oxford) analyzes the allure of Jewish history and observance for groups of Christians in South America, where around 8000 Christians across Brazil in a network of Pentecostal churches have…
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Culture Does Sarah Silverman actually have a point about ‘Jewface?’
On a recent podcast, the comedian Sarah Silverman spoke at length about the trend of casting non-Jewish actors in major Jewish roles. Despite Silverman’s professional track record of wild japes, she clearly meant every word of it. Last November, Silverman briefly introduced the same subject on the “Howard Stern Show.” This time, she cited specific…
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Culture If Steven Spielberg had known about this Dutch hero, he wouldn’t have made ‘Schindler’s List’
Jan Brokken’s “The Just” recounts how in wartime Lithuania, Dutch consul Jan Zwartendijk and Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara saved thousands of lives by issuing permits admitting Jewish refugees to the Dutch colony of Curaçao by way of Japan. Yet only in 2018, after the original edition of “The Just” was published in the Netherlands, was…
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Culture Why Jewish compassion shouldn’t just apply to human animals
Marc Bekoff, an American Jewish biologist and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder, has studied coyotes, dogs, penguins, fish, grosbeaks, and jays to understand their thoughts and emotions from a perspective of interdependence akin to the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s “I and Thou.” Benjamin Ivry spoke to Bekoff from his home in…
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Music Why a 17-year-old Israeli virtuoso is already winning comparisons to the greatest pianists of all time
Born in 2004, the Israeli pianist Yoav Levanon has just signed an exclusive contract with Warner Classics. This is only the latest achievement in a career that already includes winning the National Piano Competition in Israel at age five, followed by a debut with the Israel Chamber Orchestra at age seven. Levanon is a native…
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Culture Why a master of languages decided to reveal his true identity
“A Complicated Jew,” the Israeli translator and literary critic Hillel Halkin’s new essay collection, includes his thoughts on over half a century of Hebrew and Yiddish literary experience. Among Halkin’s acclaimed translations are works by Sholem Aleichem, Yosef Haim Brenner, S. Y. Agnon, Shulamith Hareven, A. B. Yehoshua, and Meir Shalev. He has also written…
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