Robin Hood is well known as a defender of oppressed populations. But one aspect of his story that has mostly been lost to time, however, is his role as protector of Jews, who figured prominently in ballads and dramatic texts that began appearing in 15th- and 16th-century England. Aside from his fundamental mission of tikkun…
Almost one year has passed since 19-year-old University of Pennsylvania sophomore Blaze Bernstein was killed allegedly for being gay and Jewish. On Saturday November 10, a special devoted to Bernstein’s story will air on CBS’ “48 Hours” which will include the first primetime TV interview with his parents. The show first approached Jeanne Pepper Bernstein…
It started three years ago. I was the lone staff member welcoming guests to Jewish Museum Milwaukee (JMM) on an Air Show Sunday. It had been a pretty slow day. My office was filled with the droning of jet engines, and people who weren’t into watching the Blue Angels were avoiding the Milwaukee Lakefront. I…
Stephen Sondheim, the lyricist for “West Side Story,” dislikes the movie version of the seminal musical for sticking too closely to the source material. “I don’t think ‘West Side Story’ [is] a good movie at all because it’s not a movie. It’s a photograph of a stage,” the Tony-winning composer said in a 2016 interview…
It looks like “The Big Lebowski” can count its three stars among its legion of fans. In a Today Show interview conducted by self-identified Lebowski “cultist” Harry Smith, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi reunited to wax nostalgic over their time shooting the 1998 Coen Brothers’ classic. 20 years later, they’re still delighting in…
For most Americans, eugenics exists in the cobwebs of history. It’s a musty, bogus relic now universally dismissed by the scientific community as a racist doctrine that misunderstands sociological factors. But watching the documentary “The Eugenics Crusade,” which premieres on PBS October 16 at 8:00 PM, one finds eerie echoes of the current discourse around…
Imagine Ilsa refusing to leave Rick in “Casablanca.” Or if, in “When Harry Met Sally,” after Sally faked her orgasm, the lady in the diner had left in disgust instead of saying, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Imagine if, in “Being There,” one of Ben’s friends sees through the error and tells everyone that Chance…
On May 6, 1953, Jerome Robbins was front-page news in the Forward for an act that would haunt him for the rest of his life. An above-the-fold headline — published next to an unrelated photo of a handsome young harbor boss named Francis Kelly, who appeared to be wearing lipstick — read “Acclaimed Dancer Gives…
In “What Big Ideas,” Season 2, Episode 4 of HBO’s “The Deuce,” the Hi-Hat Bar got a new patron: Photographer Nan Goldin. Proving once more that it’s not just TV, but HBO, a highbrow platform for educated art-loving types, series co-creator David Simon snuck the activist-artist Goldin into a scene in the seedy Time Square…
American audiences may not be familiar with the name “Serge Alexandre Stavisky” or his many aliases, but the French recognize the Russian-born Jewish con man’s decline as helping ease their country’s slide into Fascism. A new restoration of director Alain Resnais’ 1974 film “Stavisky” opens Wednesday at New York’s Film Forum and plays through October…
What would today’s Democratic Party, with its progressive and moderate divisions, make of Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Maybe more to the point: What would he make of the state of our politics today? These are some of the questions raised by “Moynihan,” a new documentary about the long and varied career of the titular senator, diplomat,…
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