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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Art Israeli Illusionist Uri Geller Finds A 19th-Century Soap Factory Where He’s Building His Museum
Sometimes when you build a museum, the past finds you. A few weeks ago Uri Geller, the Israeli illusionist who made his name in the 1970s by using his mind to bend spoons on television, sensed something beneath the debris at the building site of his forthcoming museum, the Uri Geller Museum in Jaffa, Haaretz…
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Culture Nazi Symbols In Video Games? For First Time, Germany Says Yes.
Since a 1998 censorship ruling on video games, German gamers have played World War II-themed titles like “Call of Duty” without a swastika in sight. That may soon change. The Telegraph reports that the German video games industry body in charge of regulating content, the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body — known as the USK —…
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Culture No, That New ‘Anne Frank’ Production Doesn’t Cast Nazis As ICE. But It’s Still Provocative.
The story of Anne Frank humanizes a period of history defined by horrors that can often feel beyond the scope of our comprehension. Since 1955, the stage adaptation of Frank’s writings by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett has brought her story to life, serving as an object lesson in what it is to be human…
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Film & TV Can Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ Solve a 44-Year Old Murder? Stephen King’s Son Thinks So.
1974 was among the worst years of Steven Spielberg’s young life. His second feature, “Jaws” ran over time and over budget. The mechanical shark — known to the crew as “Bruce” — kept malfunctioning. Shooting at sea proved more difficult than anyone could imagine. The film’s most bankable actor, Robert Shaw, was often drunk on…
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Film & TV New York Film Festival To Feature Films From Coen Brothers, Frederick Wiseman
This year’s New York Film Festival will mark a major moment for Jewish film. The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which hosts the 56-year old festival, announced the festival’s main slate lineup on August 7. Filmmaker brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, 88-year old documentarian Frederick Wiseman and visual artist Julian Schnabel are on the bill…
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Film & TV Jeffrey Katzenberg Hits $1 Billion Benchmark For His Short-Form Streaming Platform
In a DVD extra for his 2006 film “Inland Empire” the director David Lynch said, “If you’re playing the movie on a telephone, you will never in a trillion years experience the film.” But Lynch’s exhortation hasn’t stopped ex-DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s betting big money that tablet and mobile viewing of cinema-quality content…
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Art How A New Mexico Jewish Couple May Have Pulled Off A $160 Million Art Heist
It appears that Jewish couple Rita and Jerry Alter walked away from a 1985 trip to an Arizona museum with quite the souvenir. After Rita’s death in 2017, the Alters’ home in New Mexico was found to contain a long-lost Willem de Kooning painting, worth $160 million, yet no evidence had previously linked them to…
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Culture Bookseller And Library Archivist Charged With Stealing $8 Million Worth Of Books
What’s a bookstore owner to do when he’s strapped for cash? If he’s John Ezra Schulman, proprietor of Caliban Books in Oakland, Pennsylvania, he may — allegedly — pilfer rare books in excess of $8 million dollars from his local library. For almost two decades, Schulman got away with it. The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle reports…
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