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 For Your Eyes Only: A casting memo for Jewish James Bonds
Relax on the speculation, everyone. Even you, The Onion. Bond producer Barbara Broccoli announced that she is allowing Daniel Craig a one-year valedictory period before the search commences for a new 007 in 2022. Fittingly, that means the casting department at MGM needs to wait till the end of shmita to replace the legendary spy,…
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Culture SNL taps spooky, subversive Jewish comedian Sarah Sherman
What’s the best way to get a featured player spot on SNL? For new cast member Sarah Sherman, the secret sauce was posting an unsolicited audition tape, where, pinky raised to the corner of her mouth like Dr. Evil, she did impressions of everyone from Donald Trump to the infernal “Little Lad” from that one…
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Culture Tobi Kahn marks a new Jewish ritual — with a new piece of art
What does tikkun olam look like? On Yom HaTzedek, a new holiday that falls on Pesach Sheni, it looks like a box. For Tobi Kahn, the renowned painter and sculptor, that box looks like a city awash in deep blue, its interior reflecting the heavens, its slot like a mailbox to God. On a Wednesday…
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Culture William Shatner may be going to space (please alert space)
Rocket Man indeed. William Shatner, abusive Twitter gadfly and erstwhile Starfleet captain will go to space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin per a TMZ report. If true, Shatner, 90, some few decades older than the cast of “Space Cowboys,” would be the oldest man ever to go to space. (Unless we count the ancient David…
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Culture Netflix’s Holocaust revenge drama changes the facts – is nationalism to blame, or just an actor’s mistake?
As villains go, you can’t do much better than the one at the center of Netflix’s latest, a man called “Doctor Death.” In “Jaguar,” a crew of Spanish Holocaust survivors in 1960s Madrid hunt down Aribert Heim, a real-life Nazi physician who escaped justice for nearly half a century. “He was a doctor at Mauthausen,”…
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Art Now in English, an almost-forgotten story by Sholem Aleichem
We know the usual occupations in Sholom Aleichem’s fiction: dairyman, butcher, tailor. But did you hear the one about pickpockets (or “nimble fingers”), robbers (“snatchers”) and horse thieves? If not, don’t worry — most haven’t. As far as we know, Sholom Aleichem, the beloved Yiddish author best-remembered for his Tevye stories, only wrote about such…
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Culture From Drake to Javanka, 12 celebs who need to atone this Yom Kippur
Everyday Jews have the benefit of not having our sins amplified by TMZ or splashed onto tabloid covers. We can hide in our anonymity and use Yom Kippur to engage personally with our creator, taking stock of our sins while God, like Anna Wintour plotting the Met Gala invitations, decides who will be inscribed in…
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Culture Does ‘Hallelujah’ explain Leonard Cohen? A new movie thinks so.
'Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song,' explains Leonard Cohen's life through his most famous work.
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish פֿישמאַן־פֿונדאַציע זוכט פּראָיעקטן וואָס שטאַרקן ייִדישFishman Foundation seeking projects that bolster Yiddish
די פּרעפֿערענץ איז פֿאַר איניציאַטיוון וואָס מוטיקן קינדער און יוגנטלעכע צו רעדן ייִדיש
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Fast Forward ‘I will not be silenced’: Josh Shapiro invokes assassination attempt in address on rising hate violence
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Culture Pleading with God, pleading with Social Security
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Film & TV Robert Redford’s legacy is surprisingly Jewish
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