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 75 years ago, Auschwitz was liberated – here’s how the world is remembering
On January 27, 1945, the nightmare ended for some. 75 years ago Monday, the Soviets liberated Auschwitz. They found the camp unguarded, the Nazi guards having fled with the bulk of the prisoners ahead of the Red Army’s advance. Around 7,000 — most of whom were sick and dying — were released, by the Soviets….
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Culture 50 years later, ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Continis’ is a Holocaust film like no other
On a summer day in the northern Italian city of Ferrara, a band of youths, dressed in immaculate white, arrive at the walled gates of a garden, open to the public for the first time in a decade. They are there at the invitation of the young lady of the manor for a tennis tournament….
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Culture Jeff Goldblum, Marc Maron and Terry Gross find their roots
Two celebrated interviewers and perhaps the most eccentric interview subject of all time, learned about their shared Jewish pasts in Eastern Europe on PBS’s “Finding Your Roots.” On the January 21 episode of the series, podcaster and comedian Marc Maron, “Fresh Air” host Terry Gross and actor Jeff Goldblum found common ground: Namely, the Eastern…
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Culture Oy — Why those ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ ads are pretty, pretty bad
It’s only right that they be dissected
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Culture This Jewish family was nominated for more Oscars than any other
There is no name in film music that carries as much cachet as “Newman.” I can prove it: you probably don’t know which Newman I’m talking about. While John Williams has an impressive 52 Oscar nominations, the Newman family, collectively, have 95. Here are more numbers. This year alone, two Newmans, cousins Thomas and Randy,…
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Culture How Leo Hurwitz, hounded by McCarthy, changed documentary film
One proof of documentarian Leo Hurwitz’s genius is how he continued working and innovating even while he was blacklisted. As America was in the fever of the red panic, the leftist filmmaker — perhaps best-remembered for capturing the syndicated TV footage Adolf Eichmann’s 1961 trial in Jerusalem — was still in demand, though officially barred…
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Culture At a Holocaust play reading, a Jewish community divided
On Thursday night at the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, Theater of War presented excerpts from Peter Weiss’s “The Investigation,” culled from transcripts of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials from the 1960s. The script’s content ranges from clinical descriptions of Nazi horrors to stirring, if understated, testimony on the banality…
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Culture Deborah Lipstadt, Etgar Keret and Ilya Kaminsky take home National Jewish Book Awards
Updated, January 17, 4:32 pm: This story has been updated to include a list to the complete list of winners of the 2019 awards. Short tales of whimsy, a new translation of the Bible, unsung American matriarchs and two rousing calls to combat the so-called “oldest hatred:” These are the winners of the 69th Annual…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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