Sarah Seltzer
By Sarah Seltzer
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Film & TV Yom Kippur on the Big Screen
Would you shut up? I’m trying to atone!” That line comes in the opening scene of “Kissing Jessica Stein” delivered by the titular character, as she sits in the pews on Yom Kippur and tries to fend off her relatives’ too-eager advice about snagging a man before next year’s Book of Life is shut. Jessica,…
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Life Deborah Solomon: Would Her Shtick Go Over Better If She Were a Man?
While Deborah Solomon’s edgy Q&A sessions that grace the front section of the The New York Times Magazine are neither shy nor boring — some reports have indicated they’re not 100% faithful to the conversation that occurred. Regardless, the column has been attracting more than its usual share of attention lately thanks to Solomon’s extra-confrontational…
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Life On Culture: Diamant’s Friendship Narrative; Debating Sophie Tucker
• “Day After Night,” the new novel by Anita Diamant, author of “The Red Tent” and “The Last Days of Dogtown” as well as many nonfiction titles about Jewish life, concerns the friendship between four scarred young women — all survivors of the Holocaust, living in a postwar refugee camp in Palestine shortly before the…
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Life ‘Colbert’ Without Allison Silverman
Allison Silverman, the sharply funny Jewish woman behind comically Catholic blowhard Stephen Colbert, is stepping down after a long run with the show as co-head writer and, later, as executive producer. She’s been there from the show’s conception, through numerous awards and accolades to its continuing status as must-see TV at the intersection of humor…
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Life Hebrew Heroine Deficit
To go along with controversial Jewish-revenge flick “Inglourious Basterds,” Newsweek’s Sarah Ball drew up a list of butt-kicking onscreen Jews including serious foes like the protagonists of “Munich” and “Defiance” and silly ones like “The Hebrew Hammer” and Zohan. It’s a cute list, but as Leah Berkenwald at Jewesses with Attitude points, out, all these…
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Film & TV Chris Rock and the Politics of Frizz
Comedian Chris Rock has made a documentary that delves into the roots of the painful politics surrounding black women’s hair. Inspired by Rock’s young daughter, who asked him why she didn’t have “good” hair, the film looks like it’s going to be a fascinating and hilarious take on the way race and gender issues are…
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Life ‘Mad Men’: Bring Back the Smart, Scrupulous, Sultry Jewess
One of the most beguiling characters on “Mad Men” was a smart-minded, sexy Jewish broad — bring her back! As early-60s ad-world drama “Mad Men” gears up for its third season, I have an almost obsessive desire to Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), return to the show. Rachel is the Jewish career woman and sultry beauty…
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Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
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News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
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Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
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Fast Forward Talarico won’t campaign with Democratic House candidate who wants to open ‘a prison for American Zionists’
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Fast Forward California judge says Kars4Kids misled donors by omitting Orthodox Jewish mission from ads
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Fast Forward Pacific Palisades Jews, displaced by fire, reopen their synagogue as part of returning home
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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
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Fast Forward Israel’s Noam Bettan takes 2nd at Eurovision, buoyed by scrutinized public vote