JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
A museum near Tel Aviv, which first opened nearly 35 years ago, has ceased operations after failing to reach an agreement with 47 artists who accused the museum — and the city — of censorship, and demanded that their work be removed. The artists had asked The Ramat Gan Museum of Israeli Art to reverse…
In a lengthy essay published in the New York Post, we learn that filmmaker David Zucker was recently asked an inane question at an anniversary screening of his 1980 film “Airplane!” “Could you make ‘Airplane!’ today?” an audience member asked. Zucker’s response was, “Of course, we could. Just without the jokes.” Really? Is there a…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli mayor canceled his participation in a ceremony with the mayor of the Polish town of Radomsko after the speech he was to deliver to Israeli high school students was censored by local authorities. Eli Dukorsky, mayor of the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Bialik, refused to deliver the censored speech…
I felt so hopeful when the American Jewish Historical Society said they wanted to mount a performance of my new play, “Rubble Rubble.” As a Jewish anti-Zionist playwright in a politically conservative Jewish institutional landscape, I have grown accustomed to feeling unwelcome in Jewish spaces. I am not the only one. Any Jew who opposes…
Earlier this week, The Guardian published leaked Facebook guidelines for moderators charged with deciding whether to take down hateful content from the social media site. Possibly the most controversial revelation is how Facebook determines whether to remove content which denies the Holocaust. According to the documents, moderators should only take down such content in four…
Wallkill Senior High School just censored my lecture about censorship. Several months ago, the school in an upstate New York community known for its prisons and apple orchards invited me to participate in its annual “Author’s Day” event on April 4 and 5. Published writers gab to administrators, librarians and educators over a buffet dinner…
An Israeli art college removed a student’s painting from a year-end exhibit that depicted a naked woman with the face of Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. The removal of the painting at the Shenkar College of Engineering, Design and Art, a public college in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, prompted a department head to resign. Larry…
Sima Vaknin-Gill may be Israel’s last chief military censor. And she makes no secret of welcoming that. After 10 years in a role that stirs frequent annoyance and occasional dread among journalists, Vaknin-Gill wants her office, which dates back to the country’s wartime founding, replaced with a streamlined civilian agency more in sync with contemporary…
