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 The Renaissance Composer Who Put Hebrew Prayers To Music Is Having A Resurgence
“Louder!” a woman hollered from the back of the auditorium. Onstage, Elam Rotem paused in the middle of a sentence. His eyebrows inched towards his hairline. It was a gentle night in late February, and the soft-spoken founder of the Israeli male vocal quintet Profeti della Quinta – which is currently based in Basel, Switzerland…
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Culture Should We Forget The Holocaust? A New Play Says Yes — And No
“If I Forget,” currently running at Manhattan’s Laura Pels Theatre, opens with two parents anxiously discussing their daughter, who is away on a Birthright trip to Israel. The 2000 Camp David Summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and President Bill Clinton has just failed – “The peace process is over,”…
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Culture Abigail Pogrebin Celebrated Every Jewish Holiday For A Year. Here’s What She Learned.
Judaism has always been a deeply felt part of Abigail Pogrebin’s identity. Still, while Pogrebin grew up attending alternative seders that put a feminist twist on the traditional Haggadah – no surprise, given that her mother, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, co-founded Ms. Magazine with Gloria Steinem – and enormous Hanukkah parties, she didn’t start to be…
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Culture Lebowski Fest 2017, And More To Read, Watch, And Do This Weekend
First up, if you’re a young professional and the arts aren’t quite enough to sustain your social calendar — we can’t imagine why! — take a look through the Forward’s new feature “Jews About Town.” With tips on social events across the country, check it out if you’re looking for new, creative ways to get…
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The Schmooze In ‘Beauty And The Beast,’ Josh Gad Plays Disney’s First Openly Gay Character
Following the surprise triumph of “Moonlight,” which chronicled the life of a gay black man, at the Academy Awards, there’s a smaller — but still significant — piece of news on LGBTQ representation in film. When Disney’s much-anticipated live-action remake of “Beauty and the Beast” hits theaters on March 17th, it will feature the production…
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Culture Holocaust Scholar Threatened With Deportation Asks ‘Is The United States Still The United States?’
When Henry Rousso landed at Houston’s George Bush International Airport on February 22, the Paris-based historian, who studies Holocaust-era Europe, was expecting a smooth entry to the country, where he was scheduled to attend a symposium at Texas A&M University. After all, as an academic Rousso had spent 30 years making international trips for conferences….
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Culture Sana Krasikov Had No Idea How Timely Her Epic Novel Would Be
Two weeks before the inauguration of President Trump, in a quiet diner some 25 miles up the Hudson, from Manhattan, Sana Krasikov said something she could not have imagined would be as prescient as, in retrospect, it clearly was. “I was asked after my last book, ‘What’s your most valued possession?’” she told me. “I…
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Culture With Trump Travel Ban Suspended, What Will Filmmakers From Targeted Countries Do For The Oscars?
The 2017 film awards show circuit has been more politically charged than most, from Meryl Streep’s speech criticizing President Trump for mocking a disabled reporter during his 2016 campaign to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ pointedly humorous imitation of Trump, performed as she accepted a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role on HBO’s “Veep.” Central to Hollywood’s…
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