
PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
Long before the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, early men and women were living in Eretz Yisrael. Newly-unearthed relics reveal that some of these people may have traveled great distances before settling there — and that some of them weren’t 100% human. Teeth found in the Manot Cave in Western Galilee show features of both Homo sapiens…
Author’s Note: This interview originally ran on September 16, 2019. On Thursday, news broke that Michael Bloomberg was preparing to enter the 2020 presidential race. The businessman and former Republican mayor of New York (who will be running as a Democrat), has long been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump’s administration. In this article,…
Here’s a whale of a tale: In 1938, Hitler planned a covert expedition to Antarctica for the purposes of securing a direct supply line of whale fat. His reasons were both predictably martial and puzzlingly culinary in nature. Of all the political and social trends that preceded Hitler’s rise, one gastronomical development may come as…
In the closing minutes of “Advocate,” Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche’s documentary about Israeli attorney Lea Tsemel, the subject identifies herself. “Lea Tsemel,” she tells a reporter in English, “losing lawyer.” This descriptor is at once accurate, self-deprecating and overly modest. Tsemel did lose. She almost always does. But, then again, she almost always…
A roadside murder spree that gripped Israel for years; healing divisions — both international and domestic; and the secret modesty of a sun-drenched beach and trailblazing women who break with convention in matters of art, sex, politics and law. These stories are part of a formidable lineup at DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, which…
If you visit the Mid-Manhattan branch of the New York Public Library to see a collection of items belonging to the late author J.D. Salinger, you will first have to check your phone, coat and bag. This is a fitting prelude to an exhibition on a writer for whom privacy was paramount. “Of course, he…
Hebrew Bibles, unlike their best-known Christian and Muslim counterparts, are not renowned for their elaborate ornamentation. But during the Middle Ages, some were as vivid and artful as the famous illuminated New Testaments and Qurans we marvel over today. Imagine figures of naked men contorted into the shape of Hebrew letters; a full-page illustration of…
Buried deep in the thirteenth paragraph of a trade paper awards season report was news that threatens to upend the film industry as we know it. Deadline has it that 87-year-old comedy legend Elaine May is busy directing another feature film, her first in 32 years. The film will be called “Crackpot” and will feature…
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