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 Adam Gopnik Takes On Two Great Taboos: Ambition, And Sex With His Wife
If you are a recent New York transplant who has found yourself possessed with longing for a time when the city must have felt more authentic, when you might have wandered the streets with great minds, shopped in distinctive stores, and felt exalted feelings, Adam Gopnik has a cure. Two words: Rodents and insects. “All…
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Culture How Modigliani’s Jewishness Informed His Art
In the first room of the Jewish Museum’s new exhibit “Modigliani Unmasked,” a case displays two issues of La Libre Parole, the early-20th century French anti-Semitic newspaper founded by Édouard Drumont. The covers of both feature caricatures of Jewish men, their features overblown and bulbous. Hung on a nearby wall is Modigliani’s 1908 painting “The…
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Culture What Jews Can Learn From ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
When Margaret Atwood published “The Handmaid’s Tale” in 1984, the dystopian genre in literature was about to change. The books that had defined it, including Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and George Orwell’s “1984,” had been preoccupied with the threat of socialist totalitarianism. Atwood wrote “The Handmaid’s Tale” in West Berlin, in the shadow of…
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Culture Paul Auster Snags Spot On Man Booker Prize Shortlist
Paul Auster’s novel “4 3 2 1” has earned a spot on the 2017 Man Booker Prize shortlist. It is one of six novels named to be a finalist for the prestigious literary prize. Also on the shortlist are Mohsin Hamid’s “Exit West,” Fiona Mozley’s “Elmet,” George Saunders’s “Lincoln in the Bardo,” Ali Smith’s “Autumn,”…
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Culture Rod Blagojevich Is Reading Viktor Frankl In Prison, Still Not A Martyr
Lest you have forgotten, a reminder: Rod Blagojevich, former Illinois governor, was impeached and removed from office, and separately convicted on 18 federal corruption charges — 5 of which have since been vacated — for, among other wrongs, trying to sell the former Senate seat of Barack Obama after his election to the presidency. Blagojevich…
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The Schmooze Gloria Steinem Racks Up A New First At Fashion Week
Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, was, in 1972, the first woman to speak at the National Press Club. In 1976 she attended the first of what would be a series of formational women-only Seders. That same year, Ms. Magazine, of which she was a co-founder, became the first national magazine to dedicate coverage to the subject…
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Culture What Does Nicole Krauss Want To Say With Her New Novel?
This past spring, the author Nicole Krauss went to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to see an exhibit of prints by the 17th-century Dutch artist Hercules Segers. A trail of blood led down the hallway to the exhibit. When Krauss emerged from the gallery, that trail was still there, a record of some violence…
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The Schmooze New Nathan Englander, HBO’s ‘The Deuce,’ And More To Read, Watch And Do This Weekend
First, a sober note: While Houston recovers from the wreck of Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma is doing deadly damage in the Caribbean. If you can afford to, take a moment out of your weekend to send support for those who have lost loved ones, homes and more. Choosing the right way to support victims can…
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