Culture

Why I love Aaron Sorkin (really)

Here are some things I’ve learned from Aaron Sorkin. Harvard was founded in 1636, but there’s a statue on campus that says it was founded in 1638. The Bible forbids planting different crops side-by-side. The street name for chloroacetone is tear gas. The best way to seem smart and articulate is to rattle off obscure…

Is Netflix’s new sprawling fantasy the next ‘Game of Thrones’?

Growing up, I was a voracious reader. But, to my father’s chagrin (“Read some real books!”), it wasn’t Mark Twain or even Judy Blume I gobbled up — it was fantasy. I read Harry Potter, of course, but also obscure books featuring magical knights or shape-shifting girls. As an adult, I have also learned to…

In the Oscar shorts category, stories of fraught relationships in Israel

This year’s five Oscar-nominated live action shorts are strong, disturbing and concise (the longest is 45 minutes). Among the issues they explore are law and order, immigration and interracial relations. “Two Distant Strangers” examines police brutality and the African-American’s nightmarish anxiety that he will inevitably encounter it. “Feeling Through” explores the unlikely bond between a…

The Forward’s 2021 Oscars Quiz

Remembering Julian Koenig, the Jewish Ad Man Who Created Beetle-Mania

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published in the Forward on June 14, 2014.. The renowned advertising copywriter Julian Koenig, who died at age 93 on June 12, 2014, baffled the 1960s hucksters on the hit TV series “Mad Men.” In the show’s first season, the fictional admen are puzzled by Koenig’s…

Is it just me, or are the same actors in every Israeli show?

If you like to binge Israeli television or movies, you may have experienced a blurring phenomenon — not just because that’s a natural side effect of binge watching, but because all the characters look remarkably similar. In many cases, they are; it often feels like Israel has only a handful of actors. Israel is a…

Walter Mondale’s keen understanding of Jewish history

Walter Mondale, who died April 19 at age 93, was celebrated for his contributions to The Camp David Accords, political agreements signed by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978. At the time, Mondale, previously a longtime senator from Minnesota, was serving as US vice president during the presidency of…

RIP to Jim Steinman, a wonderful, vampire-obsessed songwriter

Jim Steinman was the best kind of weird. The Grammy-winning songwriter, known for his epic rock compositions for Meat Loaf, Celine Dion and Bonnie Tyler, died Monday at the age of 73, TMZ was first to report. Steinman’s songs were unmistakable in their bravura, musical theater influence and vampiric subtext. Yes. “Total Eclipse of the…

Police brutality is real and deadly — I saw it up close

JULY 1980 It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was carrying my sax as I headed for an audition at a theater company on the South Side of Chicago. I figured if I got off the el at 35th Street, I’d be just a few blocks from my Indiana Avenue destination. I was in a…