Just over a decade ago, in the autumn of 2010, the Danish state broadcaster DR aired the first season of a drama titled Borgen, centering on a smart and charismatic forty-something politician, Bir­gitte Nyborg, who leads the relatively minor Moderate Party. In an election rocked by a late-breaking scandal, the Moderates gain an un­expected fifteen…

One hundred years ago, on New Year’s Eve 1919, a small, newly formed Yiddish acting troupe staged the first performance of a comedy titled Bronx Express. The play opens on a summer evening as a grimy, bearded Jewish workingman named Harry Hungershtolts (meaning “Hunger-proud”), exhausted after a day at the factory sew­ing buttons onto garments,…