Benjamin Ivry is a frequent Forward contributor.
Benjamin Ivry
By Benjamin Ivry
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Culture Turning History’s Detritus Into Gold
Being a pioneering folklorist is no picnic. Even the groundbreaking anthologies “A Treasury of American Folklore” (1944) and “Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery” (1945), both compiled by Benjamin Botkin, met with ferocious resistance from academic folklorists, according to a new study from the University of Oklahoma Press, “America’s Folklorist: B.A. Botkin…
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Culture Frum Amid the Horror
The Felix Nussbaum house, a museum that opened in 1998 and is located in Nussbaum’s native city of Osnabrück in northwest Germany, closed for renovations July 26. A two-story extension designed by the museum’s original architect, Daniel Libeskind, will provide room for a new foyer, a library and other amenities. The renovated Nussbaum House is…
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The Schmooze A German City Built by Jews
Cologne, Germany had a flourishing tradition, not just of Jewish creativity, but also of Jewish architecture. That tradition is demonstrated in “Cologne and its Jewish Architects,” an exhibition on view through September 5 at the Municipal Nazi Documentation Center of Cologne (NS-Dokumentationszentrum der Stadt Köln). Jewish architects such as Sigmund Münchhausen contributed mightily to beautify…
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The Schmooze A Little Midsummer’s Night Music
Even as summer winds down, classical CD releases continue apace. A pellucid live performance on DVD from VAI Music of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” from the 1964 Salzburg Festival is one of the season’s best choices. It’s conducted by the Hungarian Jewish maestro István Kertész, who died in a swimming accident at Herzliya beach in…
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The Schmooze A ‘Wondering Jew’ at City College
Almost every institution of learning can boast legendary teachers, and “Reflections of a Wondering Jew,” recently reprinted by Transaction Publishers, shows that City College professor Morris Raphael Cohen, who died in 1947, is one such legend. Cohen’s 1950 posthumously compiled collection of articles displays the philosophy professor and legal theorist at his most informal and…
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The Schmooze A Portuguese Diplomat in the Kingdom of Heaven
The diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who is the subject of a new biography by French author Eric Lebreton (Le Cherche Midi Editions), was the only Portuguese citizen ever recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. “Visas for Life: Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Righteous Man of Bordeaux” relates how in 1940,…
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The Schmooze Belgian Jewry, in Posters
Posters can be a form of performance art. This is one conclusion to be drawn from “Public Notice: Jewish History in Posters,” a new exhibit at Brussels’ Jewish Museum of Belgium which opened June 18 and runs until October 3. The items in the exhibit range from anonymous 19th century anti-Semitic images like The Wandering…
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The Schmooze Susannah Heschel Versus the Aryan Jesus
As the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah Heschel, a professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, knows the importance of interfaith dialogue, as well as what happens when it breaks down. While there have been no shortage of rocky episodes in Jewish-Christian relations, few are as dark as the Nazi era. Heschel’s most…
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