Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at zax@forward.com or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Talya ZaxOpinion Editor
By Talya Zax
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Culture The Odd, Jewish Story Of Hillary Clinton’s Surprise Performance Art In Venice
The day after the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, the defeated Democratic candidate, gave a steely-toned concession speech in which she proclaimed her continuing belief in American democracy. She was near tears; many, watching, wept freely. At the time, her words came across as the wrenching final statement of a figure whose successes, failings, strength…
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Culture Bari Weiss Has Answers, But She’s Not Asking The Right Questions
How to Fight Anti-Semitism By Bari Weiss Crown, $20, 224 pages The big question about “How to Fight Anti-Semitism,” Bari Weiss’s rallying cry against the contemporary rise of the titular prejudice is: Who is it for? The brief, stylishly designed book — the often-controversial New York Times columnist’s first, written in response to the Pittsburgh…
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Culture Roman Polanski’s Dreyfus Film, Seen As Defense Against Rape Conviction, Wins Venice Award
Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy (J’Accuse),” the director and convicted child rapist’s film about the Dreyfus affair, has won a prestigious award from the Venice Film Festival. Reviews from the festival noted that, while the film was technically accomplished, Polanski had in interviews drawn direct parallels between his own case and that of…
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Culture The Long And Violent History Of Anti-Semitic ‘Disloyalty’ Charges
In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte summoned French Jewish leaders for a conversation about loyalty. French Jews had gained the status of full citizens 16 years earlier. Napoleon wanted to understand how, as newly empowered civilians, they saw the world. So he asked them if they truly considered France their country, and Frenchmen their countrymen. In 1894,…
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Culture Ken Cuccinelli Isn’t The First Trump Official To Go After Emma Lazarus — Just The Latest
Updated on August 14: This article has been updated to reflect more recent comments made by USCIS acting director Ken Cuccinelli. Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, caused a stir Tuesday morning by misquoting “The New Colossus,” the poem that famously occupies the base of the Statue of Liberty, while…
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Culture Remembering Hal Prince, Who Made Broadway Modern
There you are: Driving to work, doing the dishes, or — let’s be serious — in your shower, singing “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Cabaret,” or “West Side Story.” If you’re into Broadway deep cuts, maybe “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” Sure, the songs come from Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick; Andrew…
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Culture Q & A: On Primo Levi’s Centenary, Reflecting On A Writer Who Was ‘The Perfect Scientist’
Primo Levi was, by any measure, a remarkable man. The chemist and writer, born in Turin, Italy on July 31, 1919, is most famous in America for his memoirs of his experience during the Holocaust. And those memoirs, foremost among them “If This is a Man,” which surveys Levi’s time in the Italian resistance and…
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Culture At Philip Roth’s Estate Auction, Paying To Own A Piece Of Genius
Philip Roth had style, but he liked utilitarian things. He owned many lamps, all easily adjustable and fairly unpretty. His chairs were mostly comfortable and lived-in. He furnished his house with library tables of varying charm, and two radios that could kindly be described as aged. When he died at 85 on May 22, 2018,…
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