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 ‘Star Wars’ fanboy. Bar mitzvah boy. Senator? Jews react to Jon Ossoff’s path to victory
At press time, Jon Ossoff, a 33-year-old documentary film producer, is within striking distance of winning a seat in the U.S. Senate and flipping it blue. And while some reflected on the significance of this moment in a deep south plagued by historical antisemitism, a bunch more people were moved to make fun of Ossoff’s…
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Culture Trump’s favorite Yiddish words should come as a surprise to no one
Like most New Yorkers of his generation, Donald Trump has a few Yiddish words in his back pocket. Because he’s Donald Trump, those words are limited and — by most accounts — phallocentric. On Jan. 3, The Washington Post reportedthat Trump deployed a well-known Yiddish vulgarity in a recorded conversation with Georgia Secretary of State…
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Culture As ‘Gatsby’ enters the public domain, how to handle its one Jewish character
“The Great Gatsby” wades into the treacherous pool of the public domain on Jan. 1, 2021. Expect musicals that douse Broadway stages with green light, a Warby Parker ad campaign abusing the eyes of T.J. Eckleburg and the inevitable Ryan Murphy origin story, “Carraway.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic tale of the tainted American dream is…
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Culture 91-year-old English synagogue saved by local artists
Read this article in Yiddish. A group of local artists, educators and celebrities successfully rallied to rescue a 91-year-old synagogue in the English sea town of Margate and plan to convert it into a cultural hub for the region. The effort began in early November, after musician Francesca Ter-Berg discovered the shul, formerly a cornerstone…
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Culture What Philip Roth and Sandy Koufax have in common
When Philip Roth’s estate was auctioned off in July of last year, among his possessions was a 1963 Topps baseball card of Sandy Koufax. It sold for $950. “Roth, a baseball and Dodgers fan, was a lefty like Koufax to whom some felt Roth bore a resemblance,” Litchfield County Auctions wrote in the lot description….
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Culture To understand 2020, I looked to the art of the past
Good art — the sort that endures and evolves and speaks clearly to what it meant to be alive at a certain moment — is rarely of its exact time. There is not yet any definitive work of the Trump presidency or the coronavirus pandemic. Critics and audiences are rightly suspicious of any artist who…
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Culture ‘Wonder Woman 3’ greenlit as Gal Gadot criticisms mount online
The world loves Wonder Woman. But many still have issues with the actress playing her. The Amazonian superhero will return in a third standalone installment with star Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins Variety reported. The fast-tracking of the project follows impressive box-office returns for “Wonder Woman 1984.” The film has already made $85 million…
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Culture Is Wonder Woman’s love interest a Dybbuk?
“Wonder Woman 1984” transports us to a simpler time of probable nuclear war, petroleum-fueled global conflicts and regrettable fashion. Does it also contain a Jewish clinging demon? Hear us out, but first, be warned, there are some plot spoilers ahead. In the follow-up to 2017’s “Wonder Woman,” Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) reunites with her long-dead…
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