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 Tinker, tailor, soldier, philosemite – John le Carré’s strange relationship with Jews
John le Carré, the prolific espionage author and former MI5 spy, died Saturday Dec. 12 at the age of 89. His bibliography of nearly 60 years long outlived its major subject — the Cold War — and expanded to explore geopolitical conflicts that have yet to be resolved. In 1983, he turned his attention to…
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Culture Smokey Robinson stumped about how to say ‘Hanukkah’
Some say the Jews control the entertainment industry. If that’s the case, riddle me this: How could Motown legend Smokey Robinson, a six-decade veteran of major record labels, not know how to pronounce Hanukkah — or even have any idea what it is? We can thank Twitter user Jeff Jacobson for an unforgettable record of…
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Culture Louise Glück’s ‘minstrel show’ Nobel speech draws ire
On Dec. 7, newly-minted laureate Louise Glück delivered her Nobel acceptance speech outside of her Massachusetts home. In it, the poet expressed her lifelong interest in a kind of confessional poem, in which the speaker intimately addresses the reader. And in making her point, she lauded a work many found tone-deaf in the current climate,…
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Culture Oh, great, Benjamin Netanyahu performed a duet with an Israeli pop star
Whenever a head of state sings, it’s a risky endeavor. How does one look fun without sacrificing the dignity of the office? Or, on the flip side, austere and on-pitch enough to honor a serious occasion? President Obama is the leader who’s pulled it off most successfully in recent memory: At various points in his…
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Music How a search for Jewish inclusion helped create ‘Puppy for Hanukkah’
By now we all know Daveed Diggs’ “Puppy for Hanukkah” is a certified bop. But it was also meant to be something more than just a fun ode to the Festival of Lights. If you wade your way through the effusive social media comments — and some parents playfully cursing the Walt Disney Company for…
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Culture How ‘Big Mouth’ became bigger than me
When we last left our heroes, a sinkhole had swallowed much of the state of Florida. They escaped unscathed, parting a tidal wave with the help of a Menopause Banshee voiced by Carol Kane. Of course it was “Big Mouth” — and a Passover episode. The animated series, which debuted its fourth season on Netflix…
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Culture Israel’s former space security chief says there’s a ‘Galactic Federation.’ We have some questions.
Groucho Marx, and later Alvy Singer, once quipped “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.” But what if that club includes aliens? The question came to us Dec. 7, after the Jerusalem Post reported that former Israeli space security chief Haim Eshed dished about the…
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Culture Howard Stern disses President Trump, signs up for 5 more years of Sirius
Howard Stern’s not going anywhere. After months of keeping listeners in suspense, the self-coronated King of All Media has announced that he will remain with SiriusXM for an additional five years. In explaining his loyalty to satellite, he dissed his ex of 15 years: terrestrial radio. “I had been in a toxic relationship with terrestrial…
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