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 Is Steven Spielberg the Most Sexist Director in Hollywood?
For Steven Spielberg, who has a tendency to make films concerned with various types of aliens — see: “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” War of the Worlds,” etc., etc. — there is, apparently, one kind of character who is just a bit too foreign to handle: a woman who speaks…
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The Schmooze Surprise! Tony Kushner at Center of Israel Kerfuffle — This Time North of the Border
Tony Kushner, the playwright and screenwriter of “Angels in America” and “Lincoln,” has found himself at the center of an unexpected scandal in Toronto. In the city for a talk hosted by the Koffler Center for the Art, he’ll be discussing his career with theatre director Philip Akin. But Kushner’s appearance has been obscured by…
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Culture “Gregor” Director Will Steinberger is Kafka Mad
Will Steinberger, part of the founding trio of InVersion Theatre, has close-cropped dark hair, rectangular tortoiseshell glasses, and flighty, energetic hands. He’s an eager young artist whose ideas seem to constantly threaten to stampede inside his mind, talking with an engaging – and sometimes terrifying – rapidity. That mindset makes a InVersion’s current production of…
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The Schmooze Gérard Depardieu, Talmud Scholar?
Gérard Depardieu, the French film star known for his roles in “The Last Metro,” “Cyrano de Bergerac,” and Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet” has shed some surprising light on his literary preferences: he’s currently working his way through the Babylonian Talmud. The famously intricate rabbinic text isn’t the most obvious choice for light reading, especially for a…
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The Schmooze Woody Allen Likes Bernie Sanders But Endorses Hillary Clinton
Woody Allen, for the first time in recent memory, took a tentative step outside of the bubble of stereotypical white maleness to express support for Hillary Clinton in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter to promote his forthcoming film “Café Society.” “I’m a Hillary fan,” he said, “I like Bernie very much. I think what…
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The Schmooze Google Doodle Celebrates Jewish Inventor Hertha Ayrton
Happy 162nd birthday, Hertha Marks Ayrton! Ayrton, a British Jewish-born inventor — who was also an engineer, mathematician, and physicist, putting those of us proud of our double majors to shame — is the subject of today’s Google Doodle. Among her many achievements, Ayrton was the first woman to present a paper of her own…
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Culture Could Nathan the Wise Really Be the Second Greatest Jewish Character Ever?
When I studied in London, I frequently ran into street vendors selling black-and-white photographs of standard city scenes – a telephone booth, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey – in which a single detail, like a bus or street sign, would be colored red, a shock amongst the sedate. Sometimes the result was lovely, but more frequently…
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The Schmooze Israeli Arab Drama “Junction 48” Wins Top TriBeCa Honors
“Junction 48,” Israeli director Udi Aloni’s exploration of the tumultuous lives of Israeli Arabs, has taken top honors in the TriBeCa Film Festival’s 2016 International Narrative Competition. Aloni is the son of Shulamit Aloni, a famous Israeli politician and advocate for Palestinian human rights; he’s echoed his mother’s activism through much of his career, and…
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Yiddish וואָס צוויי פּאָעטן האָבן געשריבן וועגן זייערע מאַמעסWhat these two Yiddish poets wrote about their mothers
מאַני לייב און ראַשעל וואַפּרינסקי, וואָס זענען יאָרן לאַנג געווען ראָמאַנטיש פֿאַרבונדן, באַשרײַבן ביידע דער מאַמעס פֿרומקייט.
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Fast Forward Brad Lander woos Jewish voters in NYC mayoral race with Talmud and Hebrew
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Fast Forward Trump administration condemns destructive pro-Palestinian protest at University of Washington
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Opinion 80 years after Germany surrendered, we’re still learning the real lessons of World War II
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