Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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Culture Deconstructing the Jewishness of the Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism by Jack Jacobs Cambridge University Press, 268 pages, $90.00 Most accounts of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, the grouping of social and political thinkers briefly based at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research until Hitler’s arrival to power forced them into exile, note that they were predominantly…
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Culture Luise Rainer, Oscar-Winning German Jewish Movie Star, Dies at 104
The German Jewish actress Luise Rainer, who died on December 30 at age 104, belied the impression that to live to a great old age, tranquility of mind is essential. On the contrary, Rainer was a spitfire, who after winning two Oscars for Best Actress, for her roles in “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) and “The…
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Culture A Personal Remembrance of Classical Pianist Claude Frank
Claude Frank, who died on December 27 at age 89, was one of the last surviving pupils of the legendary Austrian Jewish pianist Artur Schnabel. In a reprint from Music & Arts of Frank’s set of complete Beethoven sonatas, originally released in 1970 for the composer’s bicentenary, the music is allowed to speak directly and…
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Culture Reconsidering Louis Ginzberg’s Legendary ‘Legends of the Jews’
Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews: Ancient Jewish Folk Literature Reconsidered edited by Galit Hasan-Rokem and Ithamar Gruenwald Wayne State University Press, 224 pages, $44.99 The legacy of the Talmudist Louis Ginzberg exemplifies the benefits of lovability in Jewish studies. Those familiar with the life of Henrietta Szold (1860-1945), founder of Hadassah and Ihud, the…
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Culture Israel Zamir, a Man Who Was Far More Than Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Son
The journalist, author, and translator Israel Zamir, who died on November 22 at age 85, deserves to be remembered as more than just the son of Nobel prize-winner Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991). As he wrote in Journey to My Father, Isaac Bashevis Singer, a 1995 memoir which is due out in paperback in June 2015,,…
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Culture 200 Years Later, Remembering Anti-Semitism of Marquis de Sade
December 2 marks the 200th anniversary of the death of the Marquis de Sade, although Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James, and the pop star Rihanna’s 2011 song “S&M” suggest that for some, sadism retains its chic. The French Jewish essayist Alain Finkielkraut asked in a 2012…
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Culture Jew on a Hot Tin Roof
● Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh By John Lahr W. W. Norton & Company, 784 pages, $39.95 An energetically gossipy biography of playwright Tennessee Williams has been written by the son of Irving Lahrheim, better known as Bert Lahr, filmdom’s Cowardly Lion. Williams, who wrote “The Glass Menagerie,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and…
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Culture Alexander Grothendieck, Brilliant Jewish Mathematician, Dies at 86
The French mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, who died on November 13 at age 86, was profoundly influenced by his family roots. His father Alexander “Sascha” Schapiro was a Russian Jewish social progressive who was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942. Grothendieck’s work, finding connections between algebra and geometry, helped to create the field of algebraic geometry. His…
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