PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
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Culture Belarusians use Chagall to slam police crackdowns on protesters
Marc Chagall loved his flying figures. Some have speculated that the recurring image of humble folks floating through the sky and over cityscapes is a riff on his own identification as a luftmentsh, or “airman,” a dreamer with big ideas but no concrete plans to realize them. But to anchor Chagall to this one meaning…
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Culture Does celebs’ Instagram boycott stand a chance of changing Facebook?
If you’ve noticed your Instagram feed is a little quieter than usual today, there’s a good reason. As part of the activist movement Stop Hate for Profit’s “Week of Action,” over two dozen A-Listers are participating in a one-day Instagram “freeze” — meaning no pet pics, snaps of acai pudding or sun-dappled shots of infinity…
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Culture BDS calls for boycott of Israeli-Arab internet personality Nas Daily
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is urging Arab content creators to boycott the massively popular Arab-Israeli internet personality, Nas Daily. Nas Daily is the handle of 28-year-old Nuseir Yassin, whose Facebook page, featuring cheery one-minute travelogues, has over 17 million followers. His videos from around the world are treasured for their spirit of global…
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Culture Why Paul Rudd’s coronavirus PSA for Millennials makes me feel ancient
For years our greatest minds have puzzled over a fundamental paradox of postmodern comedy: Is it possible to be so woefully, self-awarely out-of-touch that you end up on the right side of cool? The conceit was tested yet again in a newly-released COVID-19 PSA tweeted by Pandemic Daddy and Auschwitz thirst-trapper Governor Andrew Cuomo, featuring…
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Culture ‘The Jewish Enquirer’ gives Brits a ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ of their own
When “The Jewish Enquirer” debuted on Amazon in March of this year, its chosen world of Jewish reportage was on the eve of a major disruption. The timing couldn’t have been better — or, perhaps, worse. The sitcom, which follows freelance reporter Paul Green’s Larry Davidian peregrinations through North London, arrived just before Britain’s leading…
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Fast Forward In first-ever interview, Alexander Vindman warns that authoritarianism threatens America
Alexander Vindman is very, very familiar with authoritarianism. In his childhood, he fled communist Ukraine as a refugee. As an adult, serving as the National Security Council’s Director for European Affairs, strongman regimes were his specialty. Now, in his first-ever interview with the press, Vindman is hoping to warn the American public that Trump’s distortion…
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Culture Would Tevye vote for Trump or Biden? 25 fictional Jews weigh in.
The 2020 voter faces the ballot box during a season of unprecedented challenges — not least of which is the act of voting itself. In addition to the usual gerrymandering and voter suppression, a nationwide pandemic is poised to overwhelm an underfunded postal service. As if that weren’t enough, the president, repeating long-debunked claims of…
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Culture 7 questions for ‘The Secrets We Keep’ director Yuval Adler
In the winter of 2018, Yuval Adler, the Israeli philosopher, mathematician, visual artist and Ophir award-winning filmmaker, received a series of messages from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Well, the actor who played her at least. Noomi Rapace, who originated the role of vigilante hacker Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s…
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