Alanis of Ottawa was basically like Moses in Egypt
Plus a new column and culture podcast
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Who said it first? Phoebe Maltz Bovy on how the plagiarism gossip cycle has made a main character out of Neri Oxman
I had originally wanted to headline this column “The Oxman Cometh.” But then I did a search for this phrase, and saw that someone had used it before, 15 years ago on a Prague English-language radio station website. And I don’t want to be cancelled for plagiarism before I’ve even begun.
Why am I talking about plagiarism? And who’s the Oxman? Let me explain…
Alanis Morissette revealed that she was 28 years old—past her Jagged Little Pill peak of fame—when she discovered her mother Georgia Feuerstein was Jewish, and two of the singer’s great-uncles died in the Holocaust. Details were revealed on the PBS series Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who shared much more than her Hungary-born mother seemed to know while raising a Catholic family in Ottawa. Alanis also discovered she has daredevil ancestors later memorialized in a folk song she didn’t know.
‘A very dangerous precedent’: Two Jewish theatre artists respond to Victoria, B.C.’s Belfry Theatre cancelling a play set in Israel
Culturally Jewish podcast hosts David Sklar and Ilana Zackon discussed the curious case of The Runner, a widely acclaimed play about an Orthodox Jewish volunteer with ZAKA Search and Rescue. After it became the target of protests in Victoria, a run there was called off—but the show is set to go on in Vancouver.
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