Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
-
That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
-
A Partial Retraction
[ ![][2]][2] This paper prides itself on its editorial independence and its willingness to speak the truth, however unpopular. But after due consideration, we at the Backward have concluded that some elements of last week’s editorial, “You Asked For It,” do not stand up to scrutiny: • Not withstanding the stale cookies at the oneg…
-
Books Moacyr Scliar, 73, Storyteller of Jewish Latin America
The death of Brazilian fabulist Moacyr Scliar, at the age of 73, on February 27, in his native Porto Alegre, represents the loss of Latin America’s most popular Jewish writer of his generation, and the most influential. Scliar engaged a large audience, at home and abroad, reflecting on crucial issues that define modernity: the place…
The Latest
-
March 18, 2011
100 Years Ago in the forward The Philadelphia Jewish community is up in arms since Rabbi Landman of Temple Knesset Israel gave a sermon in which he said that all Russian Jews are swindlers, fakers, liars, crooks, conspirators, thieves, robbers and murderers. It would be one thing if a Christian or a convert had cast…
-
Mamash Not the Queen’s English
I’ve received a number of responses from readers to my March 4 column on “Yeshivish,” two of which I’ll share with you today. One is scholarly, the other is comic, but what rule states that the two can’t appear side by side? On the scholarly side, the American Jewish linguist Sarah Bunin Benor has sent…
-
The Rebbe of Sinn Féin
Last December, 300 Israeli rabbis, many of them employees of the state, signed a declaration forbidding Jews to sell or rent property to non-Jews. For some of them, the move was inspired by the philosophy of Isaac Halevi Herzog (1888–1959), one of the main modern proponents of a “halachic state” run according to the tenets…
-
The Secret History Of Jewish Metal
Mention of heavy metal music may bring to mind satanic rituals, church burnings and members of the 1980s glam-metal band Ratt sporting shoulder-length hair. If Yom Kippur gets a look in, it’s only because you’ve decided to repent for head-banging so hard to Slayer that your yarmulke fell off. Destined to change that, a number…
-
The Kid from Kazakhstan
If you’re anything like me, chances are high that the only film you’ve ever seen about Kazakhstan starred Sacha Baron Cohen and was not exactly flattering to the former Soviet republic. So when I received a press packet calling “The Gift to Stalin” “one of Kazakhstan’s most recent award-winning international hits,” I involuntarily thought, “very…
-
Books For the Love of Books
Just several feet away from where people are immersed in the digital worlds of their laptops, iPhones, and Kindles, Ido Agassi’s hand-designed, individually printed and bound books calmly look on from a display case in the lobby of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California. Those who take time to observe Agassi’s “Books as…
-
Man of the People of the Book
Christianity in the English-speaking world changed forever 400 years ago. With the release of the authorized version of the King James Bible in English, Scripture became radically more approachable. As Christians recently began celebrating the anniversary of this text, in Jerusalem a quirky, secular-born Orthodox rabbi completed a translation project of similar magnitude for Jews…
-
A Matter of Life and Death
Considering the firestorm around last year’s “Dead Sea Scrolls” exhibit — the Palestinian Authority demanded its cancellation, claiming Israel had “stolen” the artifacts — it’s understandable that Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum might tread lightly around Middle East politics. But the ROM’s new megashow, “Water: The Exhibition,” opens at a time when thorny policy challenges around…
-
Books Reimagining the Talmud
Earlier this week, Aaron Roller, an editor of Mima’amakim, wrote about the Jewish Austin Powers and the Jewish poetry conspiracy. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: I knew…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
- 2
News A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.
- 3
Opinion Pete Hegseth is targeting a Jewish American hero — who’s next?
- 4
Opinion The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
-
Opinion Were the attacks in Boulder and D.C. the product of ‘blood libel’? Not so fast
-
News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
-
Culture In the Trump-Musk feud, both sides are united by antisemitism
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
