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 In J.D. Salinger’s Archives, Proof Of Life And Not Much Else
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…
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Culture After 500 Years, An Illustrated Spanish Bible Returns From Exile
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…
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Culture Elaine May, Mounting A Comeback At 87, Is Directing A New Film
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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Culture Over 60 Nazi Objects, Set For Argentina Exhibition, Found To Be Fake
Less than a month after 72 Nazi objects, seized by Argentine police, made their way to the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum, a 32-person European delegation declared most of them to be phony. The artifacts, dubbed “Hitler’s Silver Treasure” by the Argentinian media, included busts of Hitler, a Nazi-themed ouija board, medals and a set of…
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Culture You Can Own Marilyn Monroe’s Menorah – That’s Lit!
Even before her 1956 conversion, Marilyn Monroe, was attached to Judaism. One of the most famous photos of the screen legend, with her white skirt fluttering in a jet of subway exhaust, was snapped by Garry Winogrand. The picture was promotion for Billy Wilder’s “The Seven Year Itch” (1955). A year after the film’s debut,…
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Culture Q&A: How Stan Lee Changed Comics – And The World
If comic books have a face — one that isn’t penciled, inked and boxed into a panel — that face is Stan Lee’s. For Lee, this fact proved to be both an asset and a sore subject throughout his life. Lee created — with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and countless other artists, letterers and writers…
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Culture The Warrior Skeleton Claimed By Nazis — And Then By Soviets
The skeleton of the unknown warrior lay beneath the courtyard of a ninth-century Czech castle, one hand on the pommel of an iron sword. 1,000 years after his death, his life became the subject of speculation in the emerging field of race science — with potential global consequences. Two great powers strained to link the…
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Culture In Utah, The Spooky Tale Of A Haunted Jewish Mausoleum
On the surface, there’s nothing remarkable about the Moritz mausoleum. On the grounds of the B’Nai Israel Cemetery in Salt Lake City, Utah, the simple stone vault is cut with its occupant’s last name on the lintel, and its metal door is bordered with floral motifs. It doesn’t appear to be worth a second look….
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