
Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Although Nobel Prize-winning author Samuel Beckett is known for his tragicomically inert characters, he himself was an anti-Nazi activist during World War II. Unlike the ever-absent Godot, the bedridden vagrant protagonist of his novel “Molloy” or the despairing characters in his play “Endgame” who lack legs and the ability to stand, Beckett — though painfully…
The much-anticipated spring publication by Harrassowitz Verlag of the 5th and final volume of the correspondence of German Jewish art historian Erwin Panofsky is a cause for celebration. Devoted to the years 1962-1968 (Panofsky died in the latter year at age 75), it goes far to explain the continuing influence of the noted Hannover-born author…
Wolf is at your door. At least it feels that way after the summer exhibit ?Wolf Kahn: Color & Consequence,? at the Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe gallery, in Manhattan?s Chelsea, and the September release of a revised edition of the definitive ?Wolf Kahn? by Justin Spring with Karen Wilkin and Louis Finkelstein. Kahn, born…
In Israel, Yoav Talmi won immortality early on, writing a jauntily high-spirited 1963 band composition selected as “The Tzahal March,” played on all state occasions since. Talmi, who was born in 1943 on the Merhavia kibbutz, went on to an international career as conductor and composer and his as-told-to memoirs, “A Conductor’s Career: From Kibbutz…
From Sukkot to Hanukkah, this year-end’s Manhattan classical concerts featuring Yiddishkeit contain a remarkable range of music, old and new. “Glamour Girl,” a work by Lukas Ligeti, son of the Hungarian Jewish composer György Ligeti, will be heard on November 5 at Zankel Hall played by The Bang on a Can All-Stars. Ligeti lives in…
In tough economic times, parents may think twice about splashing out on a once-in-a-lifetime spectacular bar mitzvah voyage. But “A Life Spent Changing Places,” a posthumously published memoir by the American Jewish landscape designer Lawrence Halprin, who died in 2009 at age 93, offers justification for wild splurging. When the Bronx-born and Brooklyn-raised Halprin’s 13th…
British playwright Arnold Wesker, who turned 79 on May 24, is enjoying a revival of interest in his writings. “Chicken Soup with Barley,” the first play in his 1950s partly-autobiographical trilogy (the others are “Roots” and “I’m Talking About Jerusalem”) ran from June 2 to July 16 at London’s Royal Court Theatre, where it was…
New York’s French Institute Alliance Française boasts a Florence Gould Hall while San Francisco has a Florence Gould Theater, both named after a French society hostess and philanthropist whose largesse, since her death in 1993, has been distributed by The Florence Gould Foundation. These venues were named before three histories of wartime France established that…
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