Culture

Why Saul Bellow Really Matters Right Now

As I walked into the completely packed house for a performance of “The Adventures of Augie March” — the new play based on the Saul Bellow novel that is making its world premiere right now in Chicago — I thought of how Bellow was once everywhere. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature; taught at…

The Elusive Jewishness of “Eyes Wide Shut” — Stanley Kubrick’s Final Film

The inherent Jewishness of Arthur Schnitzler’s “Traumnovelle” — the source text for “Eyes Wide Shut” — presented early problems. Stanley Kubrick’s films rarely contained Jewish characters —Lt. Goldberg in “Dr. Strangelove” and David the Jew in “Spartacus” are rare exceptions. Typically, though, he removed Jewish characters from the source texts he adapted, including “The Killing,”…

Stanley Tigerman, Architect Behind Illinois Holocaust Museum, Dies At 88

Stanley Tigerman, the prickly and inventive Chicago architect known for designing the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center died Monday, June 4. The 88-year-old passed from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in his Chicago home, Architect magazine reported, citing his widow and work partner, Margaret McCurry. In his nearly 60-year-career, Tigerman designed over 450 buildings and…

Q & A: How Do You Write A History Of The Bible?

The Bible may be the most-recognized book in the world, but its origins remain obscure. We can’t say with certainty who wrote much of it, when the bulk of it was composed or even where. But we now have a handy primer to the most significant theories about those questions in John Barton’s “The History…

My Mother Survived Italy’s Bombing Of Tel Aviv. Her Life Was Never The Same

This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. About 100 years ago my great-grandfather, Zvi Yaakov (Hirsh) Levin, who had immigrated to America with his family from Shat, Lithuania, decided to sell his share in the family business in Chicago and emigrate to Mandatory Palestine with his wife, children and grandchildren. His longing to live…

‘Tootsie,’ ‘The Ferryman’ and ‘Hadestown’ Win Big At The 2019 Drama Desk Awards

On Sunday, June 2 the 64th Annual Drama Desk Awards honored a diverse season both on and Off-Broadway, but revivals, transfers and familiar names won the evening. Leading the winners with four awards each were Anaïs Mitchell’s folk musical, “Hadestown;” “The Ferryman,” Jez Butterworth’s play of the Irish troubles; and “Tootsie,” David Yazbek and Robert…

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His Father, The Communist

A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father By David Maraniss Simon & Schuster, 416 pages, $28 As a biographer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss has trained his eye on U.S. presidents (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama) and sports icons (Roberto Clemente and Vince Lombardi). In “A Good American Family,” he burrows…