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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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History of ‘Mission: Impossible’
Last weekend, the sixth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” film franchise, “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” rocketed to the top of the box office. The movies track the travails of Impossible Missions Force (IMF) master spy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as he hangs from helicopters, brawls on narrow walkways and sprints through cobblestone alleys in a…
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Art Gerda Taro Was A Pioneering Woman Photojournalist — Now She’s A Google Doodle
The Jewish-German photojournalist Gerda Taro’s brief life was filled with firsts. She is widely considered to have been the first woman photographer assigned to the frontlines and, unfortunately, the first to die on assignment. Today would have marked her 108th birthday, and Google is celebrating her considerable legacy with a doodle on its homepage. Taro,…
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Culture Palestinian Writer Convicted Over Poems Sentenced To Five Months In Prison
After over two years of house arrest, Palestinian poet and Israeli citizen Dareen Tatour has finally learned what her future holds. On Tuesday, July 31 the Nazareth District Court sentenced Tatour, who in 2015 drew wide support from writers and advocates of free speech, to five months in prison, Haaretz reports. The sentencing follows Tatour’s…
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Art In Cleveland, A Jewish Artist Honors Tamir Rice By Engaging His Community
On November 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was black, was shot outside the Cuddel Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio by police officer Timothy Loehmann, who is white. Rice would die the following day from gunshot wounds to the torso. At the time of the shooting, Rice was carrying a black Airsoft gun, a toy,…
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Culture Shin Bet Detains Israeli Author At Airport Over Leftist Ties
The 28-year old Israeli author Moriel Rothman-Zecher, traveling with his wife and infant daughter, was held by the Shin Bet at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv this week. Haaretz reports that the agency, also known as the Shabak and charged with safeguarding state security and exposing and interrogating terror suspects, feared Rothman-Zecher’s involvement with…
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The Schmooze Masha Gessen And Samantha Bee Channel Seinfeld — With Dire Warnings About Democracy
How do you give a discussion of immigration policy mass appeal? If you’re late-night host Samantha Bee: “Car-based comedy!” Last night, journalist Masha Gessen returned to Bee’s program, “Full Frontal” in a 1984 Russian Lada for a segment called “Comedians in Cars with Dissidents Getting Coffee,” a riff on Jerry Seinfeld’s popular web series. The…
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Culture What Should We Expect From Errol Morris’s Steve Bannon Documentary?
Details are salaciously short, but documentarian Errol Morris appears to have made a film with — of all people — Steve Bannon. We know the film, titled “American Dharma,” will debut at the Venice Film Festival and that it’s meant to be a “dialogue” — a broad description that applies many of Morris’ films —…
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Music Philip Glass, ‘Hamilton’ To Receive Kennedy Center Honors
The selections for this year’s Kennedy Center Honors were announced this morning and, as ever, they’re a who’s who of people it’s hard to imagine otherwise interacting. American Jewish composer Philip Glass is receiving the famous rainbow-banded medal, awarded annually to five artists whose talents have helped shape American culture. Glass is joined in the…
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