
Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.

Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Chicago is a city renowned for its public art, from Anish Kapoor’s Instagram-omnipresent “Cloud Gate,” better known as the Bean, to Marc Chagall’s mosaic “Four Seasons” at the Chase Tower Plaza. Now, a piece of public art situated nearby both of those works, Yaacov Agam’s “Communication X9,” has been removed from the Michigan Avenue address…
Aretha Franklin was the heartbeat of American music, an unmatchable talent with an unmatchable presence. Thursday’s news of her death from pancreatic cancer at age 76 was met by testaments to her greatness from everyone from Barack and Michelle Obama to Barbra Streisand. For the Forward, Benjamin Ivry wrote a meditation on Franklin’s lasting Jewish…
The eight artifacts were found in London in 2003, the same year in which Iraq’s National Museum was looted in the wake of the American invasion. Between 2,000 and 5,000 years old, the sacred objects — which include clay cones inscribed with cuneiform script, a shard of a ceremonial weapon and a marble pendant —…
Adolf Hitler was renowned for his persuasiveness as a speaker. “Here was a born natural orator,” wrote future Irish ambassador to Berlin Daniel Binchy after seeing Hitler speak in 1921. “He began slowly, almost hesitatingly, stumbling over the construction of his sentences, correcting his dialect pronunciation. Then all at once he seemed to take fire.”…
I spent last Saturday at a truly raucous wedding, so my plans for the forthcoming weekend are heavy on sleep and light on, well, everything else. If you, unlike me, are planning to be out and about this weekend, read on for the best weekend events in New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago and Los…
Hit a rut in your love life? Partner no longer satisfying your needs? Why not buckle up and head to Vilna, where 90% of Jewish residents were murdered during the Holocaust, to spice things up? Ah, yes: The folks who came up with a new ad campaign for Vilna, now known as Vilnius, might want…
Yes, we know: Robert Redford, razor-jawlined golden boy of American cinema, is not Jewish. And yet! The actor and director, who announced his intention to retire from the former vocation on August 6, has spent many years meaningfully adjacent to American Jewish culture. He romanced Barbra Streisand in “The Way We Were,” served as Paul…
Happy August! As we look forward to the fast-encroaching autumn, make the most of the remaining gorgeous days of summer and get outside. And before your hibernation reflexes kick in, take advantage of the best of this weekend’s cultural offerings in New York City, Washington, D.C, Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as the best…
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