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 Midnight Movie Maven And Coen Brothers Patron Ben Barenholtz Dies At 83
Film producer and distributor Ben Barenholtz, who spent his youth hiding from Nazis in the Ukrainian woods and grew up to popularize midnight movie screenings, died June 27 at a Prague hospital. He was 83. His death was reported by his executor, Sony Pictures Classics executive Tom Prassis, who said that Barenholtz, who had been…
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Culture ‘Leaving Eden’ Gives The Creation Story A Feminist Spin
Playwright Jenny Waxman has been obsessed with Adam’s first wife, Lilith, since she was a student in Orthodox Jewish day school. Of course, they didn’t teach about her there. “I knew there was more and I was hungry for more than what I was being told,” Waxman, who is also a theatrical producer with her…
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Culture Q&A: Lexi Rabadi On Bringing Hannah Senesh To Life
Hannah Senesh was just 23 when she was captured, tortured and executed by Nazi-allied Hungarian authorities – but she had already lived many lives. Born the privileged daughter of a Hungarian journalist and playwright, Senesh became a Zionist at an early age, moving to Mandatory Palestine after graduating high school in 1939. She was by…
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Culture ‘Annie’ Lyricist And Director Martin Charnin Dies At 84
Martin Charnin, the Emmy, Grammy and Tony-winning director, composer and lyricist who brought a white-eyed, red-haired comic strip orphan to vivid life on stage died July 6 at the age of 84. Charnin’s daughter Sasha Charnin Morrison reported his death to The Washington Post. Charnin passed at a hospital in White Plains, N.Y. three days…
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Culture Kafka Would Love ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’
In “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” which sees our titular hero on a world tour with his high school class, Peter Parker does something Michael Cohen has long denied: Goes to Prague. Naturally, the Forward wondered what Franz Kafka would think of our web-slinging friend. Spoilers ahead. Peter’s arrival in the Czech Republic comes with some…
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Culture RIP MAD Magazine, Which Taught Generations To Laugh And Question
MAD magazine, the sophomoric, manic and generationally vital publication that shaped the sensibility of countless youths has died just shy of its 67th birthday. The news that MAD would cease production, save for back issues and one-off annual editions with new content, broke on July 4. It was a fitting date, as MAD’s impertinent humor…
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Culture This Independence, Day Read Up On Irving Berlin, Hotdogs And The Impeachment Clause
On Thursday July 4, our plucky republic marks 243 years of independence. For those celebrating, the holiday offers a day of introspection in which to consider our country’s path through history — and also fireworks and hotdogs. If you’re looking to fill your day with some compelling reading material with a Jewish bent, the Forward…
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Culture Woody Allen Directs His First Opera At La Scala
Woody Allen had a night at the opera on July 2, premiering his production of Giacomo Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” at Milan’s famed La Scala opera house. “I didn’t know if I had any ability to do this sort of thing,” Allen told the Associated Press of his first go at directing opera. “I had done…
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