Simi Horwitz is a feature writer and film reviewer based in New York City. In 2022, she received first place for film criticism from the Society for Feature Journalism, and in 2023, a New York Press Club Award for an Entertainment News feature; and three Los Angeles Press Club Awards, including first place for film criticism — all for pieces published in the Forward.
Simi Horwitz
By Simi Horwitz
-
Culture Yes, he sold art to the Nazis — but was he a traitor or a hero?
“The Last Vermeer,” marking producer Dan Friedkin’s directorial debut, is part melodrama and part thriller, but at its core it’s an exploration of moral complexities that regrettably disappears into distracting subplots and a large cast of indistinguishable characters. By the time the viewer appreciates the complicated ethical and psychological questions at play, the film is…
-
Culture 43 years after Skokie, Ira Glasser is still fighting for free speech
Freedom of speech is mined territory. Does the first amendment extend to inciting violence? And how do you define “incitement” Just ask 82-year-old Ira Glasser who served as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years (1978-2001) and is best known for his involvement with the controversial Skokie case. In 1977,…
-
Culture Gloria Steinem is having a moment — so why doesn’t she seem more relevant?
In the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the controversy surrounding her successor’s impact on the lives of everybody (most pointedly women), the surfacing of Gloria Steinem in three bio-dramatizations — on stage, television, and in film — couldn’t be timelier. In the film, “The Glorias,” we see the feminist icon at various stages…
-
Culture How a Jewish marketing whiz tried to save old-time Russian hockey
Though some knowledge of (and interest in) the national ice hockey team of the former Soviet Union (CCCP) might help you to appreciate Gabe Polsky’s new documentary, “Red Penguins,” it’s not essential. Even without a solid hockey background — for that, see Polsky’s earlier doc “Red Army” — this is an oddly fascinating story. It’s…
-
Culture In Nazi-era Austria, he needed a father; he found Sigmund Freud
Nikolaus Leytner’s “The Tobacconist,” is one of the more striking and nuanced movies to deal with the rise of Nazism. Set in Vienna in the 30’s, and based on Robert Seethaller’s 2017 best-selling novel, it’s a coming of age tale that recounts the experiences of Franz (Simon Morze), a horny 17-year-old whose personal, political and…
-
Film & TV ‘I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I wasn’t a Jew’ — Tamar Manasseh’s brave journey
Tamar Manasseh, the mother of two teenagers, remembers hearing about another young mom who had been shot and killed while attempting to break up a fight in broad daylight. “The newscasters said ‘She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ Manasseh, 41, told me over the phone from her home on Chicago’s south…
-
Culture Introducing Marcel Marceau, resistance fighter — starring Jesse Eisenberg
As writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz tells it, even in retrospect the filming of “Resistance” was unsettling — from its locales to the timeliness of the topic. The film dramatizes the heroic actions of the Resistance and the Jewish French Boy Scouts as they led 10,000 Jewish orphans out of France, across the Swiss Alps, and into…
-
Culture Diagnosing Anti-Semitism as a virulent disease
Emmy Award winning documentarian Andrew Goldberg, 51, has covered many socially/historically significant topics in his films— among them, “The Armenians, A Story of Survival,” to “Proud to Serve: The Men and Women of the US Army,” to “Out in America,” to “The Iranian Americans,” — but the Jewish experience has always been close to his…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture RFK Jr.’s poems to Olivia Nuzzi are peak cringe — so were King Solomon’s
- 2
News As young Jews move away from Israel, Jewish leaders are reluctant to change their approach
- 3
Film & TV For ill and for good, this ‘Wicked’ song has become ubiquitous
- 4
Culture A shocking true story of Mexico’s Jewish community comes to Netflix
In Case You Missed It
-
News DNA test kits spark a surge of online conversions to Judaism in the U.S.
-
Fast Forward Jewish moderate Julie Menin claims victory as next City Council speaker
-
Letters Jewish leaders must work with educators to battle antisemitism — not demonize us
-
Opinion More than 25% of Israelis want to leave the country. How did we get here?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
