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 Stephen Sondheim Awarded Prestigious PEN Literary Honor
Stephen Sondheim will receive the 2017 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award, PEN America announced on Wednesday. The organization, which advocates for freedom of literary expression worldwide, annually gives the honor to a writer who, according to their website, “helps us to understand the human condition in original and powerful ways.” Sondheim is the first composer-lyricist…
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Culture Walter Hautzig’s Talent Brought Him Fame – And Saved Him From The Holocaust
Walter Hautzig’s path out of Nazi-occupied Austria began with a piano his grandfather purchased for his mother, his daughter explained at his funeral this past Thursday. If his mother decided to go with the other option he had given her for a gift — a fur coat — things might have turned out very differently….
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Culture Backing ‘Hustler’ Trump, Gay Talese Blames Journalism’s Woes on Decline in Anti-Semitism
Gay Talese, the legendary journalist who most recently made headlines for ethical scandals surrounding his 2016 book “The Voyeur’s Motel,” is well-dressed, unsurprisingly verbose, and cranky. Those are the prime takeaways on Talese’s persona from Moran Sharir’s interview with the icon for Haaretz, published on February 3. But what of the man’s opinions on the…
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Culture Honoring Elie Wiesel, They Read ‘Night’ Aloud. Here’s What They Learned.
“Enter this place, passerby,” Michael Glickman said on January 29, “and meet those who survived the nightmare. Meet them, and learn from them.” He stood temporarily in near-darkness, on a nearly empty stage. Projected behind him, the face of the late Elie Wiesel, author of those words, loomed in triplicate: Light, shadowed, and almost fully…
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Culture Super Bowl LI, Paul Auster’s New Novel, And More To Read, Watch, And Do This Weekend
According to Punxsutawney Phil, the semi-reliable groundhog who attempts to predict the duration of winter every February 2, we’re in for many more weeks of chilly weather. What better excuse to spend the weekend curled up and indulging in the best recent TV: CBS’ “Superior Donuts,” which premiered on Groundhog Day and stars Judd Hirsch,…
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Culture ‘1984’ Is Coming To Broadway
As “1984” stays close to the top of best sellers lists — this week, it fell to second on Amazon’s list, trailing pre-sales of “alt-right” provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos’ controversial “Dangerous” — the prescience of George Orwell’s dystopian vision is prominent in the public consciousness. Now, Sonia Friedman, the British producer behind “Harry Potter and the…
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Culture Meet the Author Calling for a General Strike To Resist Trump
On Monday, January 30, The Guardian published a provocatively-titled opinion piece by author Francine Prose: “Forget protest. Trump’s actions warrant a general national strike.” In the column, Prose pondered the successes won by airport-based protests of President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order on immigrants and refugees, which prevents all Syrian citizens from entering the…
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Culture Betsy DeVos Allegedly Plagiarized This Education Organization. Here’s Their Response.
Tuesday, January 31 brought an unexpected development in the already fraught battle over the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary. As The Washington Post reported, written responses DeVos delivered to Senator Patty Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension, appeared to plagiarize multiple sources,…
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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