PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
-
Culture ‘The Plot Against America’: How the Forward reported the transformation of Charles A. Lindbergh
Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” is in some ways his least speculative book. Many of the characters, including Roth, his brother and his parents, are real, and most of the events that precede his counterhistory — where Charles A. Lindbergh becomes president in 1940 — truly happened. Roth’s Newark, was a thoroughly Jewish, if…
-
Culture David Simon on ‘The Plot Against America’ and our crisis of democracy
Anti-Semite, aviator and national hero Charles Lindbergh never ran for president — but isolationists thought of courting his candidacy more than once. The first time was in 1940, when some Republicans considered him for their ticket against incumbent Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The second time was in 1944, when Gerald L.K. Smith sought him as the…
-
Culture ‘The Plot Against America’ is truer than even Philip Roth knew
The book and HBO series reflects real-world Nazi movements in Newark and across the United States
-
Culture Harvey Weinstein spoke — about himself — at sentencing
Harvey Weinstein didn’t speak at his New York rape trial, but the film mogul and now-convicted rapist did deliver a statement at his sentencing March 11. You can read the transcript here. Before the court handed him a 23-year-prison term, Weinstein spoke of the great relationships he had with his victims Miriam Haley and Jessica…
-
Culture When Max von Sydow entertained Holocaust survivors
Actor Max von Sydow was not Jewish or German, and yet, through much of his English-language film career he played Holocaust survivors or Nazis. A favorite of Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish performer, who died March 8 at the age of 90, was a presence in film from his time in “The Seventh Seal” and “The…
-
Culture What does the Bible say about quarantine?
In recent weeks, the Jewish community has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus. The good news is, we’re old hands at dealing with quarantines. Our history with the practice of self-isolation began during our trip out of Egypt to the Promised Land, where Moses was our first public health official. In Leviticus, Moses, giving…
-
Culture How Jewish immigrants helped build Montana
When the 1860s Montana gold rush ended, the Jews of the territory were just getting started. “The thing about gold towns is that they come and go,” said Paul Kingsford, a native Englishman who now lives in Missoula, Mont. “And so they built these wooden buildings downtown, because they knew there was no point —…
-
Culture National Museum of American Jewish History files for bankruptcy
Faced with a decade-long deficit, the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, rocked in recent years by institutional changes, is hoping that filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy will move the institution toward financial sustainability. The museum, known for its exhibits on Leonard Bernstein, Richard Avedon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward ‘Murdered for speaking truth’: Netanyahu and US Jewish leaders mourn Charlie Kirk
- 2
Fast Forward The fraudster at the center of an NBA scandal once proclaimed ‘tzedek tzedek tirdof’
- 3
News A new kaffiyeh policy is designed to help divided Jews pray together. Is this the Jewish future?
- 4
Opinion To save the Jewish state, pro-Israel Jews must break from Netanyahu
In Case You Missed It
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
