Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
-
The Schmooze Pierre Dac, a Humorist in the French Resistance
Born André Isaac to an Alsatian Jewish family (his father was a butcher), the French humorist Pierre Dac became an unlikely hero of the French Resistance. After serving in the French army in World War I and being severely wounded — his brother Marcel died on the field of battle — Dac became a performer…
-
The Schmooze Author Imre Kertész Enriches Western Culture
Parkinson’s disease has not deterred the octogenarian Hungarian Jewish Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertész from literary productivity. Adding to justly-praised books such as “Fatelessness,” “Kaddish for an Unborn Child,” and “Detective Story,” still available from Vintage Books, in October Kertész’s French publisher Les éditions Actes Sud released a new translation of “A Galley Slave’s Diary”…
-
The Schmooze Classical Rediscoveries for the New Year
World War II delayed the just appreciation of many wonderful Jewish composers, such as Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Russian composer who died in 1996. Trio Voce, a gifted piano trio, has nimbly recorded Weinberg’s multifaceted Trio, Op. 24 on Con Brio Recordings, bringing out the composer’s attachment to the works of J. S. Bach. Viktor Ullmann,…
-
Culture Forgotten Witness to the Gulag
If a writer’s message is unwelcome, it may not be heeded for many years. January 21 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of the Polish Jewish author Yuli Borisovich Margolin at age 70. Margolin — whose first name is also transliterated as Julius or Yuly, and was also known as Yehudah in Israel —…
-
The Schmooze Are Classical Music Lovers Finally Becoming Cone-Heads?
From January 13 to 16 at different venues in the Garden State, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will perform alongside works by Mendelssohn and Smetana, “Dover Beach” a 1941 setting for baritone and orchestra by Edward Toner Cone, a composer and much-loved music professor at Princeton. Cone, who died in 2004 at age 87 after…
-
The Schmooze A Starring Role for Efratia Gitai, Amos Gitai’s Mother
Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai, who turned 60 this year, has been investigating his roots. Last year a Tel Aviv Museum exhibit honored his father, Bauhaus-trained architect Munio Weinraub. Gitai’s 2009 film Carmel featured French actress Jeanne Moreau (star of a recent Gitai staging of a play inspired by Josephus’s “Jewish War”) reading authentic letters written…
-
The Schmooze Heartwarming Classical Concerts for Cold Winter Days
The Babylonian Talmud counsels that at times of bitterest cold, it is best to say, “Such is the way of the world,” and then “observe eight days of festivity.” One such ideal post-winter solstice festivity for Manhattanites is a January 11 Carnegie Hall recital by America’s sweetheart of song, soprano Renée Fleming, in a program…
-
The Schmooze Roundworms, Ridicule and the Nobel Prize
If you doubt that the life of a molecular biologist and geneticist can make for delightful reading, then you have not yet seen “Sydney Brenner: a Biography” by Dr. Errol C. Friedberg from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Friedberg, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, explains how Brenner, honored with the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Charlie Kirk kept a ‘Jewish Sabbath.’ What did he mean by that?
- 2
Antisemitism Decoded Israel is being blamed for Charlie Kirk’s death. Here’s what that conspiracy theory says about the far right’s divide
- 3
Fast Forward ‘Murdered for speaking truth’: Netanyahu and US Jewish leaders mourn Charlie Kirk
- 4
News Who was Horst Wessel, and why are people comparing Charlie Kirk to him?
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Amid terror in Jerusalem, a cab driver’s brave gesture showcased the Israel I’ve always loved
-
Looking Forward Everyone thought I was crazy for majoring in religious studies. Here’s why it matters now more than ever.
-
Culture Charlie Kirk kept a ‘Jewish Sabbath.’ What did he mean by that?
-
Fast Forward At least 5 countries have said they will or could boycott Eurovision if Israel is included
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
