Talya Zax is the Forward’s opinion editor. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax.
Talya ZaxOpinion Editor
By Talya Zax
-
Culture Holocaust Love Story Opera To Make 2018 World Premiere
In January, 2018 a new opera with an unusual angle on the Holocaust will make its world premiere at Opera Colorado. The Denver-based opera company, which recently announced its 2017-2018 season, will perform composer Gerald Cohen and librettist Deborah Brevoort’s “Steal a Pencil For Me,” which tells the story of Jaap and Ina Polak, who…
-
Culture Why Gloria Steinem Thinks Judaism Should Dump Patriarchy
On a miserably rainy November morning, a journalist battled the wind through downtown Manhattan to arrive at what was, until recently, a women’s prison in Chelsea. The inherent Chelsea-ness was impossible to ignore; soft electronic music pulsed above the hiss of expensive espresso machines and the journalist, wearing an unsubtle shade of red, found herself…
-
Culture 8 Of The Most Moving Responses To Leonard Cohen’s Death
Following Leonard Cohen’s death on November 7th, news of which spread this past Friday, artists, critics, and plain old fans have sprung forward to pay homage to the great singer-songwriter. Many have recalled Cohen’s famous lyric from “Anthem:” “There is a crack in everything/That’s how the light gets in.” Even as we mourn Cohen, the…
-
A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Daveed Diggs
Meet ‘Hamilton’s’ Original Thomas Jefferson (and Marquis de Lafayette) If you dig far enough back in Daveed Diggs’s Instagram feed, you’ll find a blurry picture of a framed white poster on a yellowing wall. The poster, filled with a dense list of names, is topped with a brief, triumphant title: “Hamilton.” He took that photo…
-
Culture Such a Beautiful Holocaust Novel — Maybe Too Beautiful
Affinity Konar was still a bit starstruck, there in a lounge at Manhattan’s Warwick Hotel. She’d just met Lucette Lagnado, one of the authors of “Children of the Flames,” a book about the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and the twins who survived his Auschwitz laboratory. Konar said the book was one she had been “obsessed…
-
The Schmooze Amy Schumer, Jon Stewart Said They’d Move If Trump Won — Where Are They Now?
As Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency, scores of celebrities — among them Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, Chelsea Handler, Jon Stewart and Barbra Streisand — stepped forward to say they’d leave the country if he won. In the days since he did, their responses have varied from silence to a renewed determination to stay and…
-
The Schmooze A History Of Jon Stewart And 6 Other Things To Read, Watch, And Do This Week
Whether you love or hate the result, the election is over, and it’s time to find comfort and re-focus. A historical festival in New York, talk with Masha Gessen in San Francisco, and Israeli film festival in Chicago might prove just the ticket; if you’d rather stay home (we don’t blame you), unwind with the…
-
Life My Mother Dreamed Of Being President, And JFK Responded
When my mom was eight years old, in 1963, her older brother wanted to be the President of the United States, and her boyfriend — also eight — told her she couldn’t be. She fiercely believed she deserved the same opportunities as both, so she decided she would be one day be Commander in Chief….
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
- 2
Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
- 3
Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
- 4
Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion What Democrats fighting Trump should learn from Germany’s failure to stop Hitler
-
Fast Forward 31st anniversary of AMIA bombing marked by ceremonies in Argentina, Israel and, for the first time, Congress
-
Fast Forward Mike Huckabee to Israel: End hostile treatment of Christian allies
-
Fast Forward Connie Francis, 20th-century star turned TikTok sensation, recorded an album of Jewish songs in 1960
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
