Elissa Strauss

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Dirty Sayings Never Get Old

By Elissa Strauss

In the early 1970s, Marvin Zuckerman and Gershon Weltman, childhood friends from the co-ops of the Bronx, came across a rare Yiddish manuscript. Though they had never thought of putting out a book together, they quickly recognized that there was something in this document that made them want to take up the task of translating and publishing the work — dirty words.Read More

Identity Gleefully Revealed

By Elissa Strauss

On the television dramedy “Glee,” the Fox TV show that focuses on the members of an Ohio high school choir, lead character Rachel Berry officially came out — as a Jew. There were hints beforehand: her name, her allusions to her big nose, her love for Streisand. But it wasn’t until the episode that aired on September 23 that she officially came out and said it.Read More

Brighton Beach on the Big Screen

By Elissa Strauss

Director and screenwriter James Gray has steadfastly avoided the Woody Allen playbook of Jewish filmmaking in his work. His previous films, crime pictures such as “Little Odessa” and “The Yards,” feature scrappy, resilient Jewish men played by the likes of James Caan and Mark Wahlberg. In his new movie, “Two Lovers,” a romantic drama, the Jewish mother is reasonable, the protagonist is actually a bit hip and the young Jewish romantic interest is as pretty as the shiksa alternative.Read More

Nick and Norah: Not Your Average Teens

By Elissa Strauss

After seasons of mostly vapid teenage characters dominating the screen, big and small, Kat Dennings bucks the trend with her role in the movie “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” in theaters October 3.Read More

Jewish Traditions Through 
a Mexican Lens

By Elissa Strauss

Religion and national culture can make for strange bedfellows. And as evidenced by the availability of items like the political-themed yarmulkes the McCippah and the Obamica, American Jews have come a long way in blending the two. Mexican Jews, on the other hand, are still working on their balancing act.Read More


 

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