Arts & Culture
When Jewish David Met Irish Eileen
[Like many bespectacled Jewish men, Eli Valley enjoys making things up about comic books. Unlike your average Chabon or Lethem, however, Valley prefers soap operas to Superman, which is why he’s spent years amassing a collection of genuine 1970s-era romance … Read More
Ich Bin Ein Bestseller
What a difference a half-century makes. Fifty years ago, Germans were pulling out my relatives’ gold fillings with a vise grip; today, they are sending me and every other Jewish writer they can find large certified checks for the right … Read More
Adventures in Buenos Aires
I’m sipping coffee looking out the window of the apartment I’ve rented here in Buenos Aires. A moment ago I forgot where I was. My French doors open onto a balcony overlooking a busy street in Recoleta, the beautiful and … Read More
3rd Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel
Jewcy was invited to attend the Third Annual Broadway Purim Shpiel, uh, spectacular extravaganza, this weekend and, in lieu of a competent individual, the magazine decided to send me. I was even given a camera in hopes that I might … Read More
Eric Hobsbawm’s Stalinist Homage to Catalonia
Orwell and the Spanish Civil War are all the rage again. Perhaps brought on by the fusion of fantasy and reality that was the international box office success Pan’s Labyrinth, Western intellectuals have swooped down on the warmed-over carrion of … Read More
At the Mikveh, Age Four
For weeks my brothers flooded me with tales of drowning, said the special pool was where young girls sank and did not rise again. When we appeared at the mikveh & attempt to quell the swell of non-Jewish blood swimming … Read More
A Better Shakespearean Sonnet for Valentine’s Day
With all due respect to Robert Pinsky, it’s not often that Shakespeare’s glorious sequence to “W.H.” is credited with lesbian overtones. Here’s one example of suspected girle-on-girle action, at least according to the excellent Stephen Booth’s annotated Sonnets. What potions … Read More
