Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Talya ZaxOpinion Editor
By Talya Zax
-
The Schmooze How a Jewish Artist Created One of the Best Places To Observe Lent
Apparently it is Lent and has been since February 10th. In The Guardian’s somewhat belated move to honor this period – or, perhaps, a “we’re nearly there, don’t lose your focus” bit of motivation – this past weekend that paper’s “Christianity” section published an intercontinental list of spaces, holy for various reasons, likely to inspire…
-
Culture Maya Plisetskaya’s Spirit Dances On
As Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet prepared for the first performance of its brief residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a gale-battered audience made its way to the doors. Speaking a mix of Russian and English and clad in an inordinate amount of fur, they came to pay homage to one of Russia’s premier ballet companies,…
-
Culture Zionist Dreams and Realities Collide in New Documentary
“How do you reform yourself,” the playwright Motti Lerner asks, “after you’ve been broken?” That’s the first question posed in Joseph Dorman and Oren Rudavsky’s new documentary “Colliding Dreams.” Lerner is talking about the Hebrew word tikkun, which translates roughly to “rectification” and signifies an ancient Jewish focus on the reparation of the world. It’s…
-
The Schmooze 5 Most-Read Jewish Women Authors on Campus
If you grappled with Gertrude Stein’s circular, free- flowing, language in college — “If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon” – it turns out you’re not alone. In a recent analysis by TIME of the women authors most frequently read on college campuses, Stein showed up alongside some other familiar…
-
The Schmooze Calatrava’s Matrix-Like New York Transit Hub Fails To Inspire
Five months ago, as I left work on my first day at the Forward and my third day as a New Yorker, I caught a glimpse of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub’s spiny white exterior. “That,” I thought, gleefully, “looks like a New York type of thing.” Indeed. Unfortunately, it is probably not a…
-
Culture This Is Where Jewish American Art Began
While perhaps not a truth universally acknowledged, it is an outcome reasonably anticipated that if a museum holds opening-day festivities for a new exhibit on Valentine’s Day and the thermometer outside registers a cool 3 degrees, it is unlikely to attract many visitors. Not so for the Princeton Art Museum, which celebrated the opening of…
-
Culture Can a Revue of Jewish Show Tunes Save the World From Destruction?
Offstage, a production assistant unpacked plates of pickles and cold cuts from New York’s famed Katz’s Delicatessen. Onstage, a singer clad in sparkling, billowing pants and a bright pink hair bow adopted a cockney accent and belted out an unlikely Broadway rouser: “Who’s That Geezer Hitler?” On this Monday morning, holed up in a low-ceilinged…
-
Film & TV LGBT Issues Provide Challenges for Jewish Films
When the Washington Jewish Film Festival opens, on February 24, one of its most interesting offerings will be a series called “Rated LGBTQ.” It’s a curious title, given that movie ratings are used to help delineate which audiences are appropriate for a given film. On the one hand, it’s an invitation: Individuals who identify on…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders?
- 2
Opinion Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear
- 3
Film & TV How Jon Stewart evolved on Israel — at least on ‘The Daily Show’
- 4
Opinion A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The horror in Gaza is a catastrophe for Jews — this Tisha B’av must be a reckoning
-
Fast Forward Australian police arrest suspect in December arson attack on Melbourne synagogue
-
Fast Forward Brown University strikes $50M deal with Trump administration over allegations of campus antisemitism
-
Culture How should you tell someone that a loved one died? Judaism offers an answer.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
