PJ Grisar is a Forward culture reporter. He can be reached at [email protected] and @pjgrisar on Twitter.
PJ Grisar
By PJ Grisar
-
Culture Alexander Vindman and his twin share their story of service
In a Veterans Day message, Lt. Col Alexander Vindman and his twin brother, Lt. Col Yevgeny Vindman, told their story on behalf of all refugees, military and civilian. In the video for HIAS, the 139-year-old Jewish nonprofit that aids refugees from around the world, the brothers, who were smeared as disloyal by the Trump administration,…
-
Culture Can eyewitness footage from the West Bank change minds about the occupation? Not hers
The camera phone made everyone a documentarian. For the disenfranchised, this transformation was born of urgency. Armed with nothing more than a basic smartphone, people all over the world now have the means to command their own narratives of oppression — their own lived experience — and share them directly with millions. Recently, in America,…
-
Culture Can a drama about the Yom Kippur War heal a divided Israel?
On Yom Kippur 1973, a 7-year-old Yaron Zilberman was roused not by shofar calls, but air raid sirens. “I got confused,” said Zilberman, who believed the clamor had something to do with the holiday. “Of course you don’t have any sirens on Yom Kippur — for Veterans Day or Yom HaZikaron you’d commemorate all the…
-
Culture 6 films that predicted the 2020 Election
There is every reason for us to fear the movies that will inevitably be made about the 2020 election. The early crop of Trump entertainment, from the bloated, neoliberal hagiography of “The Comey Rule” to whatever the hell this is does not exactly set a high bar in cinematic history. At a time like this…
-
Culture Ari Melber quotes Drake as we look away in horror
As with any historic election, many of us are now taking stock of where we are, or will be, when the final vote is counted. (Probably, like most of the country, we’ll be at home.) But long after Trump or Biden hits the magic number of 270, I will still be reeling from a less…
-
Culture Paula White’s wild Trump sermon is begging for the Steve Reich treatment
Whatever you think of her views on religion, we can agree that yesterday, evangelical adviser to the president Paula White produced a most prodigious bop. At a prayer service for the reelection of President Trump, the man she won over with her teachings of “Prosperity Theology,” White delivered an impassioned sermon heavy on rhythmic repetition,…
-
Culture What King Solomon, Gwyneth Paltrow and other Jewish luminaries taught us about the 2020 election
If you’re anything like us, you spent last night toggling between cable TV, the infamous New York Times election needle and supposedly “soothing” Netflix picks, all while clutching the pint of ice cream you’d intended to save for the inevitable post-election civil strife. As it became clear that election night was becoming election week, we…
-
Culture I watched 6 hours of election coverage – I hope you didn’t
On November 8, 2016, I voted in the morning, then spent the early afternoon into the late evening in a bar in the West Village. I was in my first semester of journalism school and reporting a none-too-astute trend story about watering holes showing — and courting patrons with — broadcasts of non-sports-related content. “Game…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Meet the Jewish senator emerging as Chuck Schumer’s heir apparent
- 2
Culture Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?
- 3
Opinion Trump’s attacks on the Smithsonian come straight from the Nazi playbook
- 4
Opinion A Reichstag fire is blazing in Trump’s America and we know exactly who is fanning the flames
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘These kids were literally praying’: Jewish mayor of Minneapolis on Catholic school shooting
-
Culture Kinky Friedman has been gone a year, but his family’s summer camp lives on
-
Fast Forward Historic synagogue vandalized in Chile with posters of Netanyahu with bullet hole on his head
-
Fast Forward Spotted in a Nazi’s daughter’s real estate ad: a painting looted from a famed Jewish art dealer
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
