When dictionaries fail us, and Jody Rosen on the MTV Video Music Awards

What makes a Jewish film? To open our 100 Greatest Jewish Films week, critics A.O. Scott and Jody Rosen talk about movies from Abie’s Irish Rose to Zelig.

As the curtain rises on the musical Baby It’s You!, music critic Jody Rosen discusses its subject, Florence Greenberg, the New Jersey housewife behind the Shirelles and Dionne Warwick

Plus Mrs. God, and more

An Alvy Singer for a new generation?

It’s good old Americana, says Jody Rosen

Bob Dylan makes a Christmas album

Parodies that make us cringe today used to make people roar. A music critic discovers Abie Cohen, the Jewish version of Aunt Jemima.