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 ‘Uncut Gems’ Gives American Jews A New, Unflattering Mascot – And It’s A Triumph
If you see Josh and Benny Safdie’s “Uncut Gems” when it opens on Christmas Day, you will witness an under-explored facet of Jewish life. As the lights go down and Adam Sandler springs to frenetic life as protagonist Howard Ratner, a New York Diamond District sleaze, you might muse as to why it took so…
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Culture A Polish Jew’s Memoir Of Survival, Unnoticed For Decades, Arrives In Translation
From 1940 to 1943, Françoise Frenkel, a Jew of Polish origin, remained in hiding in Occupied France. Where she hid varied. At times of relative freedom, she lodged at a hotel with other expats. When Gestapo raids became more frequent, and the threat of deportation loomed, she hid with friendly acquaintances (a remarkably generous couple…
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Culture WATCH: A ‘Star Wars’ Tribute To Hanukkah
“Star Wars” and the holidays don’t have the best history. The trouble began in 1977 — the first Hanukkah after the original “Star Wars” hit theaters. Toy company Kenner found itself unprepared for the demands of the season and, instead of gifting kids action figures of Luke, Leia and Chewbacca, parents were forced to give…
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Culture Polish Politician Dissed Holocaust Commemoration — Then Sued The Curator Who Commissioned It
Continuing a trend, in Poland, of political objections to artwork concerning the country’s role in the Holocaust, a nationalist Polish governor is suing an art curator for defamation. The row began in October, Art Newspaper reported, when a public artwork by Dorota Nieznalski commissioned by Lublin-based art historian and curator Tomasz Kitliński was unveiled during…
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Culture Weinstein And Accusers Headed For $25 Million Settlement
Film producer and alleged serial sexual abuser Harvey Weinstein has reached a tentative $25 million settlement agreement with dozens of his accusers. The money comes with a condition — no admission of wrongdoing and no money from Weinstein’s own pocket. The New York Times’s Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, who won a Pulitzer prize for…
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News What To Know About Hebrew Israelites, Onetime Faith Of Jersey City Kosher Mart Shooter
One of the suspects identified in Tuesday’s mass shooting in Jersey City, N.J. is believed to be a onetime member of a movement called the Black Hebrew Israelites. The movement, composed of people of color — primarily African-Americans — who believe the biblical Israelites to be their forebears, has existed for over a century. Black…
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Culture The Jewish Geography Of The 2020 Golden Globe Nominees
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is continuing its love affair with Jewish filmmakers with the 2020 Golden Globe nominees. We don’t expect that members of that outfit are particularly interested in Jewish geography, but here at the Forward, our offices are plastered with headshots connected by yards of red thread and dates of b’nai mitzvah….
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Culture When Tragedy Struck A Rolling Stones Festival, And The Maysles Brothers Caught It On Film
18-year-old Meredith Hunter was pronounced dead at 6:20 PM Pacific Time on December 6, 1969. His killing defined the legacy of the Altamont Free Concert in Tracy, California — which had aspired to be a Woodstock for the west coast — partially because the jarring moments that preceded it were caught on film. Charlotte Zwerin…
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