Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
-
Culture Jim Dine On His Jewish Fate And The Fate Of The Jews
The American artist Jim Dine, who will be 84 on June 16, has just produced a new book, [“Jewish Fate” (Steidl Publishers)](Steidl Publishers ““Jewish Fate” (Steidl Publishers)”) an evocation in free verse and imagery of his boyhood, working in the Cincinnati hardware store of his grandfather, Morris Cohen. Emerging from the generation of U.S. pop…
-
Film & TV Remembering Sylvia Miles — A Born Truth-Teller
The American Jewish actress Sylvia Miles, who died on June 12 at age 94, proved that Jewish truth telling can simultaneously make and break a performance career. Miles’ devotion to verisimilitude was such that even fellow thespians were deceived by her artistry. After seeing John Schlesinger’s “Midnight Cowboy” (1969) one of her two Oscar-nominated performances,…
-
Art The Secret Jewish History Of Popeye The Sailor Man
It’s the 90th anniversary of the creation of Popeye, and the Yiddishkeit of the sailor, created by American Jewish cartoonist Elzie Segar (1894–1938), is more apparent than ever. There’s even a Popeye The Sailor Man Mezuzah sold online to protect Jewish homes from evil. Yet explicit Jewish content was scant in the Illinois-born Segar’s original…
-
Culture The Secret Jewish History Of Walt Whitman
The poet Walt Whitman, whose bicentenary is on May 31, found universal inspiration in all Americans, including Jews. As a young journalist and newspaper editor in March 1842, he wrote in “The New York Aurora” under the headline “The More the Merrier”: “Our Jewish citizens have lately taken quite a fancy to The Aurora. They…
-
Culture Remembering Judith Kerr, Whose Children’s Books Turned Anguish Into Hope
The beloved children’s book author Judith Kerr, who died on May 22 at age 95, proved that one way of coping with the tragedies of modern Jewish history was with an appetite for creative work. Born Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr to an uncommonly creative German Jewish family, she would write and illustrate such endearing…
-
Culture Remembering Herman Wouk’s Bestselling Confidence And Modesty
In the annals of best-selling authors, modesty is a rare element. The American Jewish writer Herman Wouk, who has died at the age of 103, is a happy exception to this rule. Despite his fame for the novel, play, and filmed versions of the “Caine Mutiny,”, “The Winds of War,” and “Marjorie Morningstar,” Wouk repeatedly…
-
Culture Why Is The Cannes Film Festival Honoring This Ally Of French Anti-Semitism?
This year’s Cannes Film Festival, starting May 14, will honor the French film star Alain Delon with a Palme d’honneur prize for acting, a lifetime achievement award that has previously gone to such performers as Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Delon, now 83, has played a hired killer in “The Samurai” (1967) directed…
-
Culture How Vivian B. Mann Turned Deuteronomy’s Tears into Jewish Art Exultation
Vivian Beth Mann, who died on May 6 at age 75, exemplified the moral duty of art historians by rediscovering the cultural and religious past of the Jewish people. Her pioneering studies of Jewish culture in the Middle Ages in Spain; Italy; Turkey; and Morocco continue to inspire younger scholars. Whether writing on court Jews…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
- 2
News A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.
- 3
Opinion Pete Hegseth is targeting a Jewish American hero — who’s next?
- 4
Opinion The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
-
Opinion Were the attacks in Boulder and D.C. the product of ‘blood libel’? Not so fast
-
News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
-
Culture In the Trump-Musk feud, both sides are united by antisemitism
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
