PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
-
Culture A museum devoted to the Jewish Catskills? In Ulster County, one man’s ready to break ground
Half a century after their heyday, the Catskills are having a moment. “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” recently devoted the bulk of a season to the Jewish Alps’ tummling past. The passing of comedian Jackie Mason recalled a bygone era, when families fled urban sprawls to get some mountain air and kibbitz with their coreligionists in…
-
Books How classic Yiddish tales are being brought back to life — and in English too!
David Forman’s newest book is an old one. Rich with tales of giants, the Tudor court and highwaymen besieging a humble Jewish village, “The Clever Little Tailor” is the first English translation and bilingual edition of Yiddish writer Solomon Simon’s 1933 collection of stories about Shnayderl the tailor. The book is noteworthy for having the…
-
Culture Can Kabbalah explain the most mystifying new movie on Amazon?
I was in sixth grade when I first heard about “the greatest anime of all time,” an epic of teen angst and robot-on-monster violence called “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” I can’t remember the name of the kid who told me about it — only that he was a grade older and I very much wanted his…
-
Culture Oops! A Fox anchor said Karl Marx wrote ‘Mein Kampf’
There are moments in literary history that shape the world. Around 1445 B.C.E. unnamed sources composed the first books of the Bible. In 1450 Johannes Gutenberg perfected his printing press. Thomas Paine publishes “Common Sense” in 1776. And in 1848, Karl Marx wrote “Mein Kampf” — at least that’s what one Fox anchor said. On…
-
Culture The ‘Fauda’ follow-up is a messy mystery that will probably be a runaway hit
“Who would you, Lior Raz, like to have as your love interest in our new series?” Avi Issacharoff, the co-creator of “Hit & Run,” probably asked one day early on in the show’s development. Raz’s response, one imagines, was probably: “A member of the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv. And make her considerably younger….
-
Culture A new video game has you ‘Heal Hitler’ — should we be outraged?
In a handsomely-furnished psychologist’s office, below a picture window offering a view of a city skyline, a reclined figure, staring down a stately portrait of Freud, speaks about his doting mother and his abusive father. The patient, a man in his mid-30s, is a veteran and amateur artist with a criminal record; he is prone…
-
Culture Meet the Ben & Jerry’s franchisee pushing back against boycott — and his customers, who just want to cool off
It’s a high of 90 in New York, but the southeast corner of 104th and Broadway is shady with scaffolding seating. It helps that there’s ice cream nearby. Joel Gasman’s Ben & Jerry’s store, a handsome scoop shop with a mosaic pillar at the entrance, is supplying the usual bonanza of flavors and, beginning this…
-
Culture Jackie Mason’s racist remarks are also a part of his legacy
Jackie Mason, who died on Saturday at age 93, will forever hold a storied place in American comedy for helping introduce to the mainstream a brand of humor that was fearlessly, unapologetically Jewish. But the late comedian’s brazen style of commentary also carries a dark legacy in his history of racist remarks. In 1989, Jewish…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News No Jews allowed: White supremacists are building a segregated community in Arkansas, but is it legal?
- 2
Opinion Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go
- 3
News Zohran Mamdani has represented Astoria’s Jews for 4 years. What do they think of him?
- 4
News What a Mayor Mamdani would mean for New York Jews
In Case You Missed It
-
Books This graphic history of Jerusalem is a big hit. But its Jews have hooked noses
-
Culture Is now really the best time for a cutesy Jewish summer camp movie?
-
Fast Forward Australia cancels Kanye West’s visa over controversial ‘Heil Hitler’ song: ‘We don’t need that in Australia’
-
Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: האָספּיץ־וואָלונטירס פֿונדאַציע שענקט שפּײַזקאַרטלעך צו אָרעמע פּאַציענטןTidbits: Hospice volunteer’s foundation donates grocery gift cards to poor patients
במשך פֿון זיבן יאָר האָט דזשעף לויִס אַוועקגעגעבן צען טויזנט שפּײַזקאַרטלעך.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
