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 ‘The Simpsons’ reminds us of Trump’s ‘disloyal’ Jews comments
While the question of cultural sensitivity and “The Simpsons” remains fluid, the show has always been attuned to the unique concerns of American Jewry. So it’s no real surprise that the forthcoming “Treehouse of Horror” special reminds us of the worst thing President Trump ever said about our voting trends. In the episode, which opens…
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Music Reclaiming Salome as seductress, murderess and misunderstood Jew
Most of what we know about Salome was written or imagined well after her alleged crime. Reviled as a seductress, who, some 2,000 years ago danced in front of her stepfather, Herod, before requesting the head of John the Baptist on a platter, Salome has had a sizable imprint on western culture in film, opera…
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Culture Gal Gadot’s Cleopatra casting has people mad for the wrong reasons
With the announcement that Gal Gadot is slated to play Egyptian monarch and doomed snake handler Cleopatra, the Israeli star has earned her crown as the queen of internet controversies. It’s been nearly seven full months since Gadot released the “Imagine” video, so she was due for another social media dustup. The news broke yesterday…
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Culture Pence’s debate fly has a Talmudic ancestor
Yesterday during the 2020 Vice Presidential Debate, a fly breached a plexiglass barrier amid a miasma of droplets and planted itself firmly on Vice President Mike Pence’s head for two full minutes as he nattered on about law enforcement. Surely you noticed, have seen the memes, the analysis and the instant Twitter account — but…
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Culture Long live Zayde Wisdom, the NHL’s new most Yiddishkeit player
A lot of our zaydes are right-wingers. Many are wise. But not like this. On Wednesday, Philadelphia’s hockey team, the Flyers, drafted a young man with the improbably old and Jewish name of Zayde Wisdom in their second round picks. It’s the second bit of good news this week for the 18-year-old Toronto native, who…
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Culture Did the Trump White House really echo ‘Triumph of the Will’?
In film theory, there’s something called the Kuleshov Effect, which teaches that juxtaposing images in sequence can suggest completely different reads of a shot. The typical example is an image of a blank-faced man placed alongside an image of a baby in a casket, a pairing that makes viewers interpret the man’s expression as sad…
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Culture In cancelling ‘GLOW,’ Netflix deals a body blow to representation
Without meaning to, “GLOW,” the Netflix dramedy set in the hairspray-hazed world of women’s pro-wrestling, had one of the most gutting finales in TV history. Warning: spoilers follow. At the end of the show’s third season, Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie) runs to catch her flight home for Christmas after a months-long residence in Las Vegas….
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Culture Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody will scare you into voting
Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody continue to be quarantine’s favorite Jewish parents — at least on Twitter. When they’re not being quizzed about internet slang by their son, playing trivia games or singing snatches of commercial jingles, they’re demonstrating how to phone bank all from their home in Arizona. My glorious AF wife Kathryn helped…
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