Culture

Q & A: On Primo Levi’s Centenary, Reflecting On A Writer Who Was ‘The Perfect Scientist’

Primo Levi was, by any measure, a remarkable man. The chemist and writer, born in Turin, Italy on July 31, 1919, is most famous in America for his memoirs of his experience during the Holocaust. And those memoirs, foremost among them “If This is a Man,” which surveys Levi’s time in the Italian resistance and…

Michael Flug, Caretaker And Maker Of Civil Rights History, Dies At 74

Michael Flug, a civil rights, labor organizer and the longtime Chicago library archivist for the Midwest’s largest collection of African American historical documents, died July 11. He was 74. Flug’s life was one committed to service. As a student at Columbia University, Flug was active in CORE – the Congress of Racial Equality, a leading…

WATCH: Preparing Indian Lemon Rice – In Yiddish!

Q&A: Steven Greenhouse on labor’s past, present and future

'We talk about American exceptionalism, and one thing that’s exceptional is corporate power in America is much stronger'

Tarantino’s “Hollywood” Has A Polanski Problem

This post contains major plot spoilers for “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.” In “The White Album,” Joan Didion famously described the atmosphere of California in the aftermath of the Tate murders. “I remember all of the day’s misinformation very clearly,” Didion wrote, “and I also remember this, and wish I did not: I remember…

Seven Centuries Later, A Jewish Treasure Trove Tells A Tragic Tale

Getting to The Colmar Treasure, a fourteenth century time capsule now on view at the Met Cloisters, is an adventure in itself, no matter how many times you have walked up the steep curving path through Fort Tryon Park with its picturesque cliffs and views of the Palisades. The Cloisters, a 1938 complex that incorporates…

Our Forgotten Guitar Hero, Michael Bloomfield

Editor’s Note: Michael Bloomfield would have turned 76 today. Here’s a look back at the life of the Jewish guitar legend. Back in 1977, Michael Bloomfield, the seminal white blues guitarist from Chicago who studied at the feet of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, took to the stage for a performance at the intimate McCabe’s…

Watch Out, Waiters, David Brooks Is Coming For You

When you have a soapbox like The New York Times opinion page, you can be forgiven for thinking the world may want to hear your every thought. When it’s David Brooks, though, we’re all ears! Watch out, folks, this take is hot! Waiters are 87% friendlier as they hand me the bill and I’m about…