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 Why The Nazis Banned This Strauss Opera — Even Though He Collaborated
The composer Richard Strauss has a complicated legacy. Beginning in 1933, Strauss served as the President of the Reichsmusikkammer, the Nazi Reich’s Chamber of Music, a damning collaboration with the regime. But in 2014, prompted by celebrations of Strauss’s 150th birthday, many music scholars took to editorial pages, to reconsider the extent of the artist’s…
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Film & TV The Old Schtick Still Works For Mel Brooks
At 92, Mel Brooks is a lot of things: A Kennedy Center award recipient, a titan of both stage and screen even a vampire grandfather in the recently-released “Hotel Transylvania 3,” but for all these distinctions he reduces himself to one thing. “I’m just a Jew comic,” he tells David Denby in a new profile…
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Culture Does The New Exhibit At The U.S. Holocaust Museum Go Too Easy On FDR?
On April 23, 2018, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC opened “Americans and the Holocaust,” a new exhibit that places American public opinion in its crosshairs and hopes to buck the belief that many Americans were unaware of the full scale of Nazi Germany’s crimes. “Without offering excuses, the exhibit probes the…
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Culture How Jimmy Carter Lost The Vote Of New York’s Jews
How did President Jimmy Carter, an incumbent Democratic president, lose the 1980 Democratic Primary in New York — to a senator from Massachusetts, of all places? It looks like the Jews were behind it. In his new book, “President Carter: The White House Years,” former White House Domestic Affairs Advisor Stuart Eizenstat paints a picture…
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Culture Leonard Lopate Returns To Radio Amid Controversy
Radio host Leonard Lopate has found a new home—but not all of his neighbors are happy to have him. Lopate, who was suspended and later terminated by WNYC last December after allegations of “inappropriate conduct,” launched his maiden show on the Brooklyn-based station, WBAI on July 16th, 2018 the Columbia Journalism Review reports. The show,…
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Culture Meet The Greatest (And Only) Jewish Sumo Wrestler
In 1987, Marcello Saloman Imach, a 22-year-old swimming instructor stepped into a gym in Buenos Aires, stamped his feet and did something his Jewish mother could never have imagined. He started sumo wrestling. Sumo is Japan’s national sport, wherein two, overweight and underclad fighters (rikishi) try to force each other out of a ring or…
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Culture Remembering Bess Myerson, The First And Only Jewish Miss America
Bess Myerson, the first and only Jewish Miss America and, later, a power player in New York politics, was born on July 16, 1924. Myerson, a figure of glamour and, eventually, scandal, was a sign of changing times. Her coronation as Miss America came in September, 1945, only a few days after V.J. Day, the…
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Culture Why Jews Should Root For France In The World Cup — Not Croatia
With its 2-1 victory over England, Croatia has secured its place in the World Cup final, squaring off against France for the coveted cup this Sunday. So, who should Jews root for in the final match? To answer this question, we need to look at the countries’ records, not in soccer, but with the Jews….
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