Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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Culture How Phil Spector’s Jewish success story became a tale of paranoia, drugs and murder
The record producer and convicted murderer Phil Spector, who died on Jan. 16 at age 81, showed that historical and personal trauma can motivate, and also destroy, Jewish artistic urges. Spector’s decades of abusive behavior toward colleagues, especially women, culminated in the 2003 murder of the actress Lana Clarkson, for which he was sentenced to…
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Culture Why Trump wasn’t the first Republican to appropriate Aaron Copland
An instance of presidential plagiarism provides a good occasion for considering how Aaron Copland, a gay Jewish leftist composer from Brooklyn, managed to create works of such unsurpassed Americana that they are even coveted by homophobic, antisemitic, quasi-Fascist wannabes. Minions of the current occupant of the White House recently released a post-campaign TV advertisement, which…
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Culture How Joan Micklin Silver captured the spirit of the Jewish immigrant experience
Joan Micklin Silver, who died on Dec. 31 at age 85, proved that for American Jewish women, being a film director means facing challenges of assimilation not unlike those confronted by immigrant ancestors generations ago. Silver based “Hester Street” (1975) on the novella “Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto” (1896) by Abraham Cahan,…
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Culture Remembering Howard Rubenstein, Jewish power broker extraordinaire
When the American Jewish power broker and public relations maven Howard Rubenstein, who died on Dec. 29 at age 88, wanted his clients to look especially sympathetic, they sometimes unexpectedly claimed ties to Yiddishkeit. Rubenstein represented many Jews during his long career, including the publisher Robert Maxwell, businessman Ron Perelman, sportscaster Marv Albert, and real…
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Culture Forever marked by his wartime experience, Pierre Cardin remained loyal to his Jewish customers
The French fashion designer Pierre Cardin, who died on Dec. 29 at age 98, likely acquired empathy for Jewish customers through his wartime experience as an Italian émigré to France. Cardin, who created futuristic garb for everyone from the Beatles to NASA astronauts, was born Pietro Costante Cardin in the province of Treviso, in the…
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Culture Once enemies, Anthony Fauci and Larry Kramer developed a surprising bromance
One way to celebrate the 80th birthday on Dec. 24 of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would be to re-examine his complex friendship with the American Jewish author and AIDS activist Larry Kramer. When Kramer died in May of this year at age 84, Fauci recounted in…
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Culture Remembering Catie Lazarus, a beacon of optimism and humor
The American Jewish comedian Catie Lazarus, who died on Dec. 13 at age 44, made interviews into performance art through affectionate sibling-like jibes at guests, as if they were members of an extended mishpocheh. Her “Employee of the Month” series of chats at the Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub in downtown Manhattan featured sassy challenges to…
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Culture How Alison Lurie inherited her Jewish sense of social consciousness
The writer Alison Lurie, who died on Dec. 3 at age 94, proved that an inherited Jewish sense of social consciousness can inspire a literary career. Author of the celebrated novels “The War Between the Tates” and “Foreign Affairs,” Lurie was the daughter of Harry Lurie (1892-1973), a Latvian-born sociologist and expert in Jewish social…
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