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 Made of gold, not clay: Give the world’s most valuable dreidel a spin
They didn’t make this one out of clay. A New York diamond dealer has just set a Guinness World Record for the world’s most valuable dreidel, valued at $70,000. With a hand-made body composed of 18 karat gold, symbols inlaid with diamonds and a 4.20 carat diamond at the top’s point, Estate Diamond Jewelry’s sales…
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Culture In 1913, a rabbi appeared on film for the very first time — in a Christmas movie
As the winter winds whipped through lower Manhattan in the days before Christmas in 1913, a group of rabbis took shelter in a screening room to watch a film that claimed to be about them. It was the first American movie to feature a rabbi as a character. Shortly after the screening, a report from…
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Culture Psychedelics Pioneer And New Age Guru Ram Dass Dies At 88
Baba Ram Dass, the self-effacing guru, psychedelic evangelist and promoter of Eastern theology died December 22 at his home in Maui, Hawaii. A post on Ram Dass’s Instagram page reported his passing at the age of 88. Before Ram Dass became a best-selling New Age author, and even before he partnered with Timothy Leary in…
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Culture Beirut: Public Sculpture Resembling Star Of David Removed After Outrage
After a spate of online outrage, Lebanese authorities have removed a sculpture from Beirut’s Martyr Square. The reason? If viewed from above, the geometric artwork appears looks like a Star of David. According to Hyperallergic, the sculpture, British artist Nathaniel Rackowe’s “LP46,” became the center of a controversy on December 15, when a photograph of…
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Culture Meet Elizabeth Warren’s Fave Spy Novelist — A Jewish, Ex-CIA Judo Master
In a recent Rolling Stone interview, Elizabeth Warren spoke on impeachment, her family history and her one-time Republican affiliation. When asked what she does to unwind, the presidential candidate and senator from Massachusetts said she listens to fiction, specifically “The John Rain series,” which she described as “a good sort of mystery adventure.” The John…
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Culture The Mel Brooks Feline Musical You Must Watch As An Antidote For ‘Cats’
The net effect of Tom Hooper’s cinematic treatment of “Cats” is one of horror and existential dread giving way to derision. Rocking an abysmal 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, critics have described the film iteration of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feline pageant as “a dog” and “the worst movie of the year and arguably the decade.” The…
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Culture Every American Hanukkah Special, Movie And TV Episode Worth Knowing About
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Hanukkah’s profile has grown over the years due to its proximity to Christmas. It’s also true that because of this nearness, it is the Jewish holiday the most Christians are familiar with. And yet, while Jews are said to control the entertainment industry, we’ve made our greatest festive…
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Culture UNESCO Cuts Ties With Belgian Parade Over Anti-Semitic Float
Following months of outrage over an anti-Semitic float included in a popular Belgian carnival, UNESCO has severed ties with the festival, which the cultural arm of the U.N. added to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010. In March, the Aalst Carnival included a parade float featuring Jews with hooked noses and side-curls perched atop…
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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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