Jewish Art Today

This lively and informative collection of cultural stories, originally published in THE FORWARD, explores the unexpected lives and challenges faced by Jewish artists on and off stage in the contemporary world. Topics include the ambivalence experienced by Jewish feminist theater artists performing in Muslim countries; the mixed bag emotions of Jewish reporters working at the Arab-owned network, Al Jazeera; a three-parter on how gender and ethnic identity politics inform performance (e.g., Jewish drag queens and the lesser known Jewish drag kings); and an exploration of the artists who create ecologically minded visual and theatrical art—employed to remediate and protest environmental abuses and celebrate nature. The collection also includes stories that consider off-the-beaten-track, ground-breaking productions such as The New Yiddish Rep’s WAITING FOR GODOT in Yiddish; and profiles of controversial figures like Ed Asner, Dick Zigun (dubbed “Mayor of Coney Island” who forged a cult-following, unabashedly freakish “Sideshow at the Sea Shore”) and the late Judith Malina of Living Theater fame; the latter as she faced the end of her life at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in New Jersey.