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 Let Eric Andre, the most subversive comedian working today, replace Ellen DeGeneres
After years of industry-wide whispers, high profile reports are beginning to shatter Ellen DeGeneres’ veneer of niceness. Former employees recently dished to BuzzFeed News with stories of a toxic work environment replete with microaggressions, racism and intimidation, allegations that have put DeGeneres’ image in jeopardy. But, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is a hit, placing NBC…
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Culture In bringing back ‘Hunters,’ Amazon fails the test of history — and good taste
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum condemned it for welcoming “future deniers.” So did the USC Shoah Foundation. But Amazon’s “Hunters” is moving forward with a second season, all the same. Somehow, the outrage over the series’ invented Holocaust atrocities — most notably a game of deadly “human chess” — wasn’t enough to squash interest in a…
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Culture Jonathan Swan is the meme hero we need right now
Jonathan Swan’s agile interview with President Donald Trump for Axios on HBO was revelatory. The 40-minute conversation exposed the president’s dismissiveness of pandemic-related deaths, his unwillingness to praise critics like the late John Lewis and his remarkable lack of concern over Russia’s reported aid to Taliban soldiers. But for the internet, the biggest takeaway was…
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Culture Trump: ‘Yo-Semites.’ Us: ‘Hello!’ Listen to our rap!
In an August 4 speech at the White House, President Trump was invoking the beauty of our national parks when he stumbled on the words “Yosemite’s towering sequoias.” He said “yo-Semites,” to which we say: “Hi!” Here’s the clip pic.twitter.com/b4NtCuEa2z — Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) August 4, 2020 Jewish Twitter, naturally, had a field day. In…
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Culture What Nick Cannon learned from Bari Weiss’ anti-Semitism book
In her review of Bari Weiss’ “How to Fight Anti-Semitism,” Forward deputy culture editor Talya Zax asked, simply enough, “Who is it for?” Well, it might be for Nick Cannon. The actor, who has embarked on a learning tour since making anti-Semitic comments on his podcast, “Cannon’s Class” which led to an end to his…
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Culture In Seth Rogen’s ‘American Pickle,’ a salty tale of preserving (at least some) Jewish traditions
It’s surprisingly easy to read “An American Pickle,” a fable about Jewish continuity as told through the pickled personage of an Eastern European immigrant preserved 100 years in brine, as an allegory for Seth Rogen’s most recent controversy. Based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker novella “Sell Out” and developed with Rogen, who also produced, the…
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Culture Martha Nierenberg, entrepreneur and art restitution plaintiff, dies at 96
Martha Nierenberg, a biochemist and entrepreneur who spent decades fighting her native Hungary for the the return of her family’s Nazi-looted masterpieces, has died at the age of 96. Her family reported that she passed in her sleep on June 27 at a senior living facility in Rye, N.Y. Martha Weiss de Csepel was born…
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Culture Israel made a gamer-friendly tank
Israel’s newest tank might be operated by an Xbox controller. The Carmel, one of three model armored vehicles in the running to be the IDF’s newest mobile weapon of war, was made to be operated by Israel’s young soldiers. As the Washington Post reports, the windowless vehicle on tank treads has an interior that looks…
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