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 University Of Toronto Holocaust Scholar Resigns Over Racist Remark
Michael Marrus, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, resigned earlier this week after making a racist remark to a student. Last week, as The Toronto Star reported, Marrus had been sitting at lunch with three of the College’s graduate students, known as junior fellows, when head of the College…
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Culture Honoring Philip Roth In Newark, Robert Caro Spoke Of Civil Rights, Power And Morality
In the future, when some scholarly young Jew flirts with bankruptcy while composing an engagingly voluminous biography of noted biographer-of-length Robert Caro, he or she might note the occasion, last week, upon which Caro took to a Newark Public Library Stage to deliver that institution’s Second Annual Philip Roth Lecture. Worth particular observation would be…
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Culture Poet Jill Bialosky Faces Plagiarism Accusations Over New Memoir
Poet Jill Bialosky, currently an editor at W.W. Norton and Company, has been accused of plagiarism in her recent memoir from Simon & Schuster “Poetry Will Save Your Life.” The accusations, made by poet and critic William Logan in the Tourniquet Review, center on Bialosky’s brief biographies, in the memoir, of poets whose work she…
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Culture Masha Gessen, Elliot Ackerman Among National Book Awards Finalists
Masha Gessen and Elliot Ackerman are among the finalists for this year’s National Book Awards. Such an honor to be on this list. Thank you @nationalbook https://t.co/rjkb3yMrWd — Elliot Ackerman (@elliotackerman) October 4, 2017 Gessen’s “The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” released this week, is a finalist for the award in nonfiction. Ackerman’s…
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Culture Roz Chast Loves Everything About Manhattan — Even The Cockroaches
As Roz Chast informs readers in her new book, “Going Into Town: A Love Letter To New York,” from Bloomsbury USA, grilled cheese is a blissfully safe food to eat in the gustatory wilds of Manhattan. That, and eggs: “YOU CANNOT GO TOO WRONG,” she writes. The instruction’s uncontained maternal anxiety is charming; “Going Into…
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Culture A Gloria Steinem Biopic Is Coming, Thanks To Julie Taymor And Sarah Ruhl
Gloria Steinem, author and feminist activist, has done quite a bit for women. Now, a Jewish woman will bring her story to the big screen. Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor, mastermind of the acclaimed Broadway adaptation of “The Lion King,” will direct an adaptation of Steinem’s 2015 memoir “My Life on the Road” for June…
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Culture In ‘The Treasurer,’ A Young Jewish Playwright Takes On A Foreign Concept: Hell
Some arrangements seem unchangeable: Life ends in death, children — however reluctantly — love their parents, Jews don’t believe in hell. Not so in Max Posner’s new play “The Treasurer,” which opened at Playwrights Horizons this week. The title refers to a character known as The Son, who takes charge of his mother’s finances after…
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Culture New York Values Run Amuck: Ex-Socialists Teach Dogs Commands In Yiddish
There are certain objects and behaviors that are unquestionable hallmarks of New York: bagels with smoked fish, ill-disguised fury at tourists who walk too slowly, humans dressed as Elmo accosting the unwitting in Times Square. But for those like Ted Cruz, who in a long-past era — could it be possible I’m remembering it with…
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