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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Fast Forward Mike Richards steps down from ‘Jeopardy!’ gig after antisemitic comments unearthed
That was quick. Two days after The Ringer reported on Mike Richards’ past podcast remarks, in which the newly appointed “Jeopardy!” host made offensive remarks about poor people, Haitians and Jews, Richards announced he was stepping down. “It pains me that these past incidents and comments have cast such a shadow on ‘Jeopardy!’ as we…
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Culture In Netflix’s latest, a Nazi salute sets off the season’s best comedy
Netflix’s best new comedy ends its first episode with a Nazi salute. In the fictional lower-tier Ivy, Pembroke University, a popular professor, Bill Dobson, strides into his packed classroom. He writes “Absurdism” on the board and, right above it, that artistic movement’s partial impetus, “Fascism.” His students seem engaged and he continues with the lecture….
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Culture What Kushner pal Ken Kurson’s songwriting suggests about his latest charges
Author’s Note: After being pardoned by Trump for alleged cyberstalking, Jared Kushner’s longtime chum Ken Kurson is now facing similar charges. In light of this news, we are revisiting this article from October of last year, which plumbs Kurson’s musical oeuvre, a canon of paranoia and jealousy that gels quite well with the allegations. Ken…
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Film & TV Scarlett Johansson’s new baby is named Cosmo… like Kramer
Some people enter the world with a spasm of life, commanding attention as they jerk their way into existence. Kinda like how Kramer bursts into a room, only probably with more medical equipment and less studio audience applause. On Wednesday, a baby boy made one such entrance — at least if his name, like Moses…
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Culture Former Folksbiene CEO quits 6-figure job after résumé-padding investigation
The former CEO of the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, who was recently found to have padded his résumé with fake jobs and professional honors, is resigning from his post at the University of Utah’s Pioneer Theatre Company, citing mental illness. “Despite many good things that have happened over the last two years under my direction,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ וויכטיק ווערק פֿון מוזיקאָלאָג משה בערעגאָווסקי פּובליקירט צום ערשטן מאָלImportant work by musicologist Moyshe Beregovsky published for the first time
דאָס בוך נעמט אַרײַן דעם ייִדישן טעקסט, זײַן רוסישע איבערזעצונג און אַ קאָמענטאַר אויף ביידע שפּראַכן.
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Fast Forward Jewish judge overturns Trump administration’s Harvard funding freeze, ruling antisemitism allegations were a ‘smokescreen’
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Fast Forward Israeli fashion brand launches campaign protesting starvation in Gaza
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Fast Forward Jewish Studies faculty at U of Oregon rally to protect their jobs from feared budget cuts
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