Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
-
Culture The Midrashic Achievement of Poet John Hollander
The American Jewish poet John Hollander died on August 17 at age 83. At a 1990s New York literary gathering, I praised his translation of a poem by Jorge Luis Borges, “The Golem.”. Hollander demurred modestly, not adding as he did to the poet Edwin Honig in 1985: “My mother’s family traditionally believes that my…
-
News Iconic Opera Singer Regina Resnik Dies at 90
The American Jewish mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik, who died on August 8 at age 90, was admired for her high-flying dramatic delivery and stage presence in roles from Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s “Falstaff” conducted by Leonard Bernstein to the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s “Pique Dame” conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1987, in the Kander and Ebb musical…
-
Culture Remembering Charlotte Delbo on the 100th Anniversary of Her Birth
August 10 marks the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the non-Jewish French writer Charlotte Delbo, who was deported to Auschwitz and survived to bear witness. Delbo’s prose and verse writings were reprinted by Yale University Press under the title “Auschwitz and After,” while her plays — including some never previously printed — were recently…
-
News Journalist Henri Alleg, Warned of Torture Dangers, Dies at 91
After 9/11, when the legitimacy of waterboarding and other torture methods during interrogations became a topic of fierce media debate, the French Jewish journalist Henri Alleg, who died July 17 at age 91, seemed uncannily prescient. Alleg, a newspaper editor in Algeria in the 1950s, was imprisoned and tortured by French authorities for supporting Algerian…
-
Culture How Dogs Went From Feared Enemy to Jew’s Best Friend
‘If you are already a dog, at least do not be a pig.” “A cantor in his old age barks like a dog and eats like a pig.” “A wife is like a dog in the house.” These and other Yiddish proverbs may be seen as objectionable today, but all reflect the complex and contradictory…
-
News Mikhl Herzog, Columbia Professor and Yiddishist, Dies at 85
Marvin (Mikhl) Herzog, who passed away on June 28 at age 85, exemplified the lexicographer’s belief that by genial attention to minutiae, a life’s work can be constructed. Toronto-born Herzog was a longtime professor of Yiddish at Columbia University as well as director and editor-in-chief of the Yiddish Atlas Project which co-published with YIVO the…
-
Culture Jewish Artist Who Once Called Chagall’s Art ‘Crappy’ Finally Gets His Due
The French Jewish painter Sam Szafran is the subject of an exhibit, “Sam Szafran, 50 Years of Painting,” at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny, Switzerland, and a new book, [“Sam Szafran: Entretiens avec Alain Veinstein” (“Sam Szafran, Conversations With Alain Veinstein”)][3], that sheds further light on the artist’s inspirations. Born Samuel Berger in Paris…
-
Culture Edgar Feuchtwanger Recalls Living Across The Street From Adolf Hitler
When we call someone a “nightmare neighbor from hell,” we usually mean that phrase hyperbolically, but some of those who lived in the vicinity of Adolf Hitler decades ago in Germany and Austria found the term remarkably apt. The French publisher Les éditions Michel Lafon has published the German Jewish historian Edgar Feuchtwanger’s “Hitler My…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion In the rush to vilify Israel, genocide scholars ignored the truth
- 2
Fast Forward Coldplay welcomed Israeli fans onstage ‘as equal humans.’ Why are some Jewish people mad?
- 3
Fast Forward Trump lawyer who praised ‘Mein Kampf’ is now accusing Harvard of antisemitism, report says
- 4
Fast Forward The fraudster at the center of an NBA scandal once proclaimed ‘tzedek tzedek tirdof’
In Case You Missed It
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
