Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Talya ZaxOpinion Editor
By Talya Zax
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Culture The last and greatest gift Stephen Sondheim gave us
The thing about Stephen Sondheim is that there is almost nothing meaningful to write about him, because he captured what was remarkable about himself better than anyone else ever could. In his lyrics and his music, Sondheim, the musical theater genius who died Friday at the age of 91, gave voice to an extraordinary spirit….
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Culture From Brighton to Anatevka: 50 years later, a cast of ‘Fiddler’ remembers the show that changed their lives
Editor’s Note: Fifty years ago, on Nov. 3, 1971, the movie adaptation of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ premiered. In honor of that anniversary, we are publishing a series of article about the impact of ‘Fiddler’ and its legacy. You can read more of the stories here. A full spotlight comes up on Keith Parsky, center…
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Culture The Sally Rooney boycott brouhaha is right out of a Sally Rooney novel
By now you’ve heard: Sally Rooney, the millennial Irish author whose three novels have launched a thousand thinkpieces, is refusing to let an Israeli publishing house translate and distribute her latest book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You.” That choice prompted the literary brouhaha of the week, especially after Rooney, pressed on her decision, released a…
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Culture My fleeting love affair with NPR’S Ophira Eisenberg
Editor’s note: Some nine years after its debut, NPR’s “Ask Me Another” has come to an end. In 2016, the Forward’s Talya Zax profiled Ophira Eisenberg, the show’s host. In honor of the show’s conclusion, we’ve republished that profile. Hectic strains of unidentifiable indie rock drift over the audience. Mostly white and mostly well-dressed, they…
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News He died in the Towers. In a Manhattan synagogue, his legacy continues to grow.
'I remember him being quiet but powerful, this comforting voice'
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Culture Isaac Bashevis Singer’s return to Ellis Island, in never-before-seen photos
The day Isaac Bashevis Singer returned to Ellis Island was “a beautiful, cold day,” said the photographer Robert A. Cumins. Singer, who was born in Poland, had first set foot there in 1935 as a refugee fleeing antisemitism. Nearly half a century later, in 1979, he returned with a delegation of international Jewish leaders brought…
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Culture ‘Pride is also a Yizkor’: Remembering LGBTQ Jews we’ve lost
“Pride is also a Yizkor.” Those were the words of the Forward’s archivist, Chana Pollack, early in Pride month, as she and I discussed her planned dive into the Forward’s archives in search of its queer history. Her point: Generations of LGBTQ Jews who have faced exclusion from their families and communities have wondered who…
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Archive Timeline | How the Forward covered LGBTQ history
If an American reader had glanced casually at the front page of the Forward on May 7, 1933, they would have had no idea that one of the most pivotal events of the early Nazi regime had occurred the day before. No, it wasn’t the decision of Adolf Hitler’s Justice Department to allow for the…
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