Steven Zeitchik
By Steven Zeitchik
-
Culture Pork and Milk
Breaks from tradition also weigh on the mind of Valérie Mréjen, director of the pleasingly low-key French documentary “Pork and Milk.” Through a series of interviews, Mréjen throws a light on a number of young Israeli men who also happen to be have left the fold of ultra-Orthodoxy: a chef, a cantor with the radical…
-
Culture The Chosen People
Give Igal Hecht credit for trying. Making a movie about theology is tricky enough; making one about a fringe theology requires a miracle. In his ambitious but frustrating documentary, the Canadian filmmaker has taken on that perpetual urban curiosity, Jews for Jesus. By the choice of subject, one expects a flurry of proselytizing and street-side…
-
Culture Close Encounters of the Middle East Kind
The most surprising thing about Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” a conversation piece long before it even got out of production, is the limpness with which it lands. There’s something trumped-up about the whole enterprise that actually renders it less substantial — scenes milking the extra second before an explosion, assassins debating ethics with improbable gravitas and,…
-
Culture A Jewish Family Drama, Minus the Shmaltz
Judaism and parental ambition have been inextricable since the early days — the really early days, back to when old Jacob let his hopes get too high for poor Joseph. (Had Ivy League law schools existed back then, one can only imagine the arguments.) Immigrant tenacity, a tradition of literacy and just plain genetic stubbornness…
-
News From a Flatbush Boy Whose Teacher Has Told Him Goodbye
He was a new teacher, not yet 30, and I was a student, barely 17, when we first talked. I never sat in his classroom; we met in the very non-teacherly environment of Model U.N., for which he enthusiastically led our school’s delegation. But from the moment I met him, Rabbi Alan Stadtmauer became one…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
- 2
Culture Mamdani’s first statement on antisemitism as mayor-elect got some weird pushback
- 3
News How Mamdani became New York’s next mayor, with Jews divided between fierce opposition and fiery support
- 4
Culture Mamdani quoted Eugene Debs in his victory speech — there’s a long Jewish history there
In Case You Missed It
-
News Scott Wiener, Jewish Democrat and critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, vies for Nancy Pelosi’s seat
-
Opinion Why a concert hall should be the last place for a protest — particularly an antisemitic one like this
-
Looking Forward What Hailey Bieber smoothies and instant matzo ball soup reveal about American Jewish taste
-
Culture Mamdani’s first statement on antisemitism as mayor-elect got some weird pushback
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
