Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
-
Culture Why Barbra Streisand Should Think Twice About Starring in ‘Gypsy’
Just because Barbra can do something does not mean that Barbra should do it. The recent news that long-percolating plans for Streisand to star in a film of the Jule Styne musical “Gypsy” will occur has thrilled millions of fans. Not long ago, Barry Levinson shepherded the volcanic Al Pacino through two monstrous TV film…
-
Culture The Secret Jewish History of Muhammad Ali
The boxer Muhammad Ali, who died on June 3 at the age of 74, has been accused of having “frequently clashed with the Jewish people.” The truth is more complex. The Louisville-born heavyweight champ was raised a Baptist, but joined the Nation of Islam in 1964, abandoning his birth name of Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr….
-
Culture What Emma Goldman Has in Common — With Bernie Sanders
Emma Goldman (1869–1940), the Lithuanian Jewish anarchist, was widely known in America as Red Emma for her defense of free speech, labor protests, women’s rights and birth control. Although she was deported from the United States in 1919, starting in the 1970s increasing numbers of historians and readers have been drawn to Goldman’s personality and…
-
Culture Remembering Mell Lazarus, Creator of Miss Peach and Inspiration to Joseph Heller
Mell (born Melvin) Lazarus, the American Jewish cartoonist who died on May 24 at age 89, was more than just the creator of the long-running comic strips Miss Peach and Momma. Lazarus was also a novelist, whose fiction may have inspired his friend Joseph Heller, author of “Catch-22”. Lazarus had befriended Heller, a fan of…
-
Culture How Morley Safer’s Jewish Upbringing Inspired His Quest for Decency and Justice
The Canadian Jewish broadcast journalist Morley Safer, who died at age 84 on May 19, was as much preoccupied with ethics and the arts as reporting during his more than a half-century with CBS News, 46 of them with the program “60 Minutes.” He told Abigail Pogrebin, author of “Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk…
-
Film & TV Last Surviving ‘Casablanca’ Actor Dies — Along With a Slice of Jewish History
When Madeleine Lebeau, the last surviving actress from the film “Casablanca” (1942) died earlier this month at age 92, she took with her more than film history. Her screen role as Yvonne, Humphrey Bogart’s discarded mistress, was twinned with her real-life role as the wife of French Jewish actor Marcel Dalio (1899–1983). Dalio was born…
-
Music Did George Gershwin Plagiarize From Broadway’s ‘Shuffle Along?’
“Shuffle Along, Or The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921,” the Broadway show starring Audra McDonald, opened on April 28. Its book by George C. Wolfe purports to explain how the African-American songwriter Eubie Blake encountered difficulties along the way to producing a show, “Shuffle Along,” nearly a century ago. One of the key…
-
Culture Library of America Founder Daniel Aaron Dies at 103
The Chicago-born American Jewish literary historian Daniel Aaron, who died on April 30 at the age of 103, combined stamina and longevity with an implicit belief in humanity’s moral evolution. Aaron’s “Writers on the Left: Episodes in American Literary Communism,” published by Columbia University Press (1961), discussed such notables as Mike Gold (born Itzok Isaac…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaida 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
-
Fast Forward Harvard Divinity School appoints professor who has criticized Zionism to new Jewish studies role
-
Opinion Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians
-
Fast Forward A week after Boulder attack, attendance at Run for Their Lives spikes from dozens to hundreds
-
Fast Forward How many American Jews are there? A global study of world religions offers a new estimate
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
