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 Does Roman Polanski’s New Film Make The Dreyfus Affair About Him?
Since it was first announced, Roman Polanski’s new film about the Dreyfus Affair, his first since the #MeToo movement began, has been raising eyebrows. “An Officer and a Spy (J’Accuse),” retells the story of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful 1894 conviction for treason sparked a decade-long controversy that became a flashpoint of French…
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Culture Q&A: How The Israeli Baseball Team Bested The Skeptics
Is there any greater underdog story than that of the Jews? How about the Israeli baseball team? In 2017, 28 American Jewish pro ball players — some retired, some in career slumps — packed their bats to play in the World Baseball Classic in Seoul. They were 200-1 projected losers; they ended up sweeping the…
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Culture Richard Linklater Is Making Sondheim’s ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ — It Will Take 20 Years
Richard Linklater has had a weird and varied career. He’s given us tender-hearted indie two-handers with his “Before” trilogy. He’s given us broad family comedy with “School of Rock” and the remake of “Bad News Bears.” He’s given us roto-scoped reflections on dreams in “Waking Life” and coming of age campus dramedies with “Dazed and…
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Culture In ‘Mr. Klein,’ A Dark Document Of The French Occupation Muddled By A Story Of Obsession
On July 16, 1942, Paris lost its Jews. They disappeared in what became known as the Vélodrome d’Hiver (Vel’ D’Hiv) Roundup, named for the indoor bicycle racing track where the bulk of a reported 13,152 Jews were detained as they awaited transfer by cattle car to Auschwitz. This mass arrest by the French authorities, at…
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Culture Netanyahu Calls ‘Our Boys’ Anti-Semitic, Urges Boycott Of Network That Airs It
The HBO and Keshet Studios-produced series “Our Boys,” which recounts the 2014 revenge murder of a Palestinian teenager by Orthodox Jews, continues to generate controversy — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has slammed the show and called for a boycott of Keshet. “The propaganda Channel 12 [Keshet’s station in Israel] produced an anti-Semitic series called…
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Culture Q & A: Eran Riklis On Directing A Mossad Thriller With Ben Kingsley
In the Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis’s new spy thriller “Spider in the Web,” Sir Ben Kingsley plays a world-weary Mossad agent. This, after playing Adolf Eichmann in “Operation Finale” (2018) and a member of the Israeli intelligence community in the recent Netflix release “The Red Sea Diving Resort.” Like Kinglsey, Riklis is in familiar territory…
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Culture In Europe, A Festival Insists That Jewish Culture Is As Important As Ever
On September 1, 2019, the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, 34 countries will observe the European Days of Jewish Culture, opening the doors of historic synagogues and engaging local communities in over 400 cities throughout the continent. That anniversary is notable, but rather than focusing on the Holocaust and its near-obliteration…
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Culture Fashion Designers, Artists Protest Stephen Ross’s Hudson Yards Art Space
An enclave for the arts near the Hudson River is the latest institution to feel blowback for billionaire businessman Stephen Ross’s support for President Trump. Artists and fashion brands are protesting The Shed, a recently-opened venue for emerging artists at Hudson Yards, the sprawling, $25 billion riverside development spearheaded by Ross’s real estate firm, Related…
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