Remembering a Show That Flopped
The backward tale, coupled with having young, inexperienced performers play the roles of older adults, just wasn’t believable to audiences, and the show flopped after 16 performances.
Why Susan Sontag and Bernard-Henri Lévy Spoke Out in Bosnia
Into the hell of Bosnia entered Susan Sontag. It was July 1993, her second visit, and she was in Sarajevo to direct a production of Waiting for Godot.
George Eliot Also Grappled With Feminism and Zionism
Just as Daniel Deronda probes the limits and possibilities for women in Victorian England, it addresses a different set of concerns regarding Jewish self-determination in Palestine.
The First Zionist Novel?
George Eliot’s ‘Daniel Deronda’ was written in 1876, 21 years before Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist movement—to the astonishment and delight of many contemporaries, and of many Jews ever since.
Boublil & Schönberg: The French Duo Behind Two Broadway Megahits
The helicopter has landed—again. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s musical behemoth Miss Saigon returns to Broadway this March after a 16-year hiatus.
Poetry That is Better Than Poetry
There have been Jewish American poets for about as long as there has been American poetry.
Comics Roundup // Leela Corman
Why is this comic different from all other comics?
The Curious Case of Dorothy L. Sayers & the Jew Who Wasn’t There
A devoted reader examines the odd relationship between the so-called queen of British detective fiction and her Jewish characters.
Speaking Volumes // Anna Solomon on Unto the Soul
Around the time I first read Aharon Appelfeld’s Unto the Soul (1994), I was just barely starting to write about Jews.
Books That Shaped Great Authors
We asked 20 prominent Jewish authors to discuss the books that shaped them.
Opinion // The True Value of Cheap Books
It is Book Week in Tel Aviv. At Rabin Square, the tables are loaded with volumes, old and new, light and heavy, and buyers are leafing through them as they move from one publisher’s table to the next.
Howard Jacobson Meets Shylock
The Man Booker award-winning British author gives The Merchant of Venice a new twist. And no, he doesn’t think Shakespeare was an anti-Semite.