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
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Culture Why Is a Formerly Secular Woman Like Her Running a Chabad Center?
At the age of 13, Keren Blum told her parents that she was an agnostic. Because she also became a vegetarian at that time, her parents, Conservative Jews, were troubled by what they perceived as rebelliousness. They tried to make Judaism joyous and meaningful for her — in vain, at least initially. Blum completed her…
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Culture Jewish Enviro-Artists Have the Whole World in Their Hands
Mierle Laderman Ukeles seemed overwhelmed. She had just returned from a month-long stay in Israel at the height of the horrors, and was now playing catch-up as the official, but unsalaried, artist-in-residence at the New York City Sanitation Department, a gig she has held since 1977. As a longtime champion of the department, Ukeles has…
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Culture ‘Bearded Lady’ and ‘Gender Terrorist’ Take Performance Art Beyond the Fringes
Stomping across the stage in a disheveled blond wig, cheesy pink boots, and a jean skirt adorned with raccoon tails, performance artist Rose Wood is every bit the trailer-park hooker attempting to sell her wares. Enraged and desperate, she strips off her torn and tied T-shirt, revealing nude breasts, and when that doesn’t work, she…
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Culture ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Turns 50 With an All-Star Celebration
Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre (aka Folksbiene) doesn’t seem too surprised — indeed, he sounds matter-of-fact — that the iconic theater is marking its 100th birthday and still going strong. But, he acknowledges its founders, who opened the theater’s doors on the Lower East Side for Yiddish speaking Eastern European immigrants, would…
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Culture Jewish Drag Kings Reclaim Male Roles for Women
In “Floodlines,” a site-specific theater piece that took Jaclyn Pryor seven years to create, a Jewish funeral cortege travels through the streets of Austin, Texas. Each car sports a small Jewish star. The audience members, who have assumed the role of mourners in the cars, watch various enactments that take place on the streets. Later…
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The Schmooze Genocide Remembrance From New York to Rwanda
To commemorate the 20-year anniversary of the genocide of the Tutsi people in Rwanda, the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust will present a staged reading of actor-writer Jay O. Sanders’ play “Unexplored Interior” on May 11. It promises to be a striking event in several ways, not least as a…
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The Schmooze Israeli Films Show Nuance at Tribeca Film Fest
Two films screening at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival show subtle and nuanced perspectives on Israeli life from a woman’s point of view. Talya Lavie’s first feature, “Zero Motivation,” [screening April 17 – 24,]( (http://tribecafilmfestival.org/filmguide/53208b38c07f5df7d20008a9-zero-motivation ‘screening April 17 – 24,’) focuses on a unit of female Israeli soldiers at a desert-based human resource center awash…
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Culture Why Being Barbra Streisand Can Be a Drag
Steven Brinberg does not want to be called Ms. Streisand, Barbra or Babs before he steps onto the stage fully transformed into the singing icon. Until that moment, address him as Steven, please. Indeed, it takes 90 minutes for the metamorphosis to be completed, starting with layers of makeup, followed by dress and wig. The…
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