Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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The Schmooze Singer Georges Brassens and His Estonian Love
October 29 marked the 30th anniversary of the death of the warm-voiced, humane French singer/songwriter Georges Brassens (born 1921), and tributes have included a 19-CD set out on October 17 from Mercury/Universal, following the interrogatively titled study “Brassens?” by French popular song specialist Bertrand Dicale, out in February from Les éditions Flammarion. Also receiving posthumous…
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The Schmooze No Smoke Without Freud
As all Freudians realize, an analysis is an analysis, but a good cigar is a smoke. French-Jewish psychoanalyst Philippe Grimbert is known to American readers for his autobiographical novel, “Memory,” published in 2008 by Simon & Schuster — the United Kingdom edition from Portobello Books was titled “Secret”— translated from the 2004 original from Les…
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The Schmooze Henri Borlant on Language that Destroyed and Saved Lives
In 1995, Serge Klarsfeld described Henri Borlant, a French Jewish doctor born in 1927, as “the sole survivor out of 6000 French Jewish children under age 16 who were deported to Auschwitz in 1942.” On March 3, Borlant published a lucidly eloquent memoir from Les editions du Seuil, “Thanks for Surviving” (Merci d’avoir survécu). The…
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Culture Samuel Beckett’s Letters Reveal Roots of Resistance
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…
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The Schmooze Erwin Panofsky, Example in Letters and Life
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…
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News Wolf Kahn’s Palette Gets Brighter With Age
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…
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The Schmooze Conductor Yoav Talmi Is Marching to Glory
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…
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The Schmooze The Arty Semite’s Fall Classical Concert Guide
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…
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