Jewish History & Culture
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Literary Paprika (Mark Sarvas and 'The Elegant Variation')
What better way to start the New Year than by sprinkling a little literary paprika? Consider this: Mark Sarvas, a New York-born son of Hungarian parents, a voracious reader, a Francophile and a foodie, comes to Los Angeles to be a writer, sells some screenplays and starts an acclaimed literary blog, The Elegant Variation (marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar […]
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Old Jewish Jokes
Tom Teicholz tellsJewish jokes Let us quote from sacred text: the 2005 Emmy Award acceptance speech by “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart. Spaketh Stewart: “When I first said that I wanted us to put together a late-night comedy writing team that would only be 80 percent Ivy League-educated Jews, people thought I was crazy. They […]
Mamet's Question
David Mamet has written a book, “The Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred and the Jews” (Shocken/Nextbook), that is by turns bold, courageous, and outrageous — it is a book that calls Diaspora Jews to the table and asks: “In or Out?” “The underlying premise of the book,” Mamet told me recently, “is to all Jews: If […]
A DIFFERENT ISRAEL
When Israel is discussed these days, more often than not it is in terms of an existential crisis, or “the situation,” or as the subject of international news headlines. However, reading recently published works by three different Israeli fiction authors, Etgar Keret, Benjamin Tammuz and A.B. Yehoshua, is a bracing reminder that there is an […]
A Passion for War (Steve Rubin)
To meet him, you might think Steven Rubin is a normal person. Tall, handsome, happily married with young children, he is personable, affable — in short, one of the gentlest and nicest guys you could meet. But he is a man obsessed with war — World War II to be precise. Recently, Rubin launched www.ww2daily.com, […]