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 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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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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