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
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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
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Of Gourmands and Rhinos
Was Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman guilty of an oxymoron when, in January, he labeled fellow right-wing Cabinet members who opposed his proposal to investigate the funding of leftist Israeli nongovernmental organizations “faynshmekerim v’karnafim” — that is, “feinshmeckers and rhinoceroses”? An oxymoron — from Greek oxys and moros, which mean not “oxen” and “morons,” but…
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Absorbing Art of an Expressionist Poet
Else Lasker-Schüler was one of the most influential literary figures in early 20th-century Berlin. She was known for her literary Stammtisch, or get-togethers, at the Café des Westens and for her bohemian ways. But it was her Expressionist poetry, with its penchant for exotic imagery and neologism, that made her famous. Here in Germany, more…
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Gay and Orthodox: And Cleaving Strongly to Both
In January, I went to a shabbaton with 140 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Orthodox Jews. Yes, Virginia, there are gay Orthodox Jews. There always have been. And while I have been working in the LGBT Jewish community for many years, I saw more courage, endurance and strength that weekend than I ever have before….
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Manic Depression Is Touching My Soul
Ofir Trainin’s documentary “Wandering Eyes” implicitly commands the viewer to empathize with Gavriel Balachsan, Israel’s self-proclaimed “next big thing” in rock, as he loses big-thing status with his downward slide into the mire of manic depression. The inclusion of this documentary in the ReelAbilities: NY disabilities film festival (at the JCC in Manhattan through February…
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Books The Ones That Missed the Cut
Earlier this week, Saul Austerlitz wrote about his recent author tour and five not-as-terrible-as-you-think movies. 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: One of the trickiest aspects of writing…
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The Resegregation of the United States of America
MY LOS ANGELES IN BLACK AND (ALMOST) WHITE By Andrew Furman Syracuse University Press, 248 pages, $24.95 In California, they call us freeway flyers — adjunct college instructors who commute between far-flung schools. Thus, half the week I teach at El Camino College in Compton, one of the more disadvantaged neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The…
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Storm-Tossed Hungary Gets a Schiff
Decades ago, I interviewed Hungarian-Jewish composer György Ligeti[ at a boutique hotel in the upscale Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris; Ligeti had just received, among many other honors, the Balzan Prize for, as stated on its website, “culture, as well as for endeavors for peace and the brotherhood of man.” I asked Ligeti whether that wasn’t…
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An Interview With András Schiff
András Schiff, although rarely available for press interviews about his musical career, answered by e-mail the following questions from The Forward about growing anti-Semitism in Hungary: THE FORWARD: Is there any cause for optimism in the near or immediate future about the situation in Hungary? ANDRÁS SCHIFF: There is always hope, but not too soon….
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In a Tel Aviv Attic, It’s a Case of Workman, Repair Thyself
Set in a cavelike workshop, in dimly lit rooms, in alleyways and under heavy cloud cover, “Restoration” (“Boker Tov, Adon Fidelman”) is almost entirely devoid of sunlight. It’s a surprising choice for a movie that takes place in Tel Aviv, a seaside city that is far more sunny than gray. And yet, the color palette…
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Heebish Highlights of the Sundance Film Festival 2011
Many of the selections at the Sundance Film Festival, which ran January 20–30 in Park City, Utah, were the work of Jewish directors or about Jewish themes — the following films among them. • Prolific documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus was back at Sundance this year, premiering “Bobby Fischer Against the World.” The film tells the…
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Haunted by Love and Other Women
Natalie Portman can act! That’s the lesson this winter seems determined to teach us. The excruciating dead eyes of Padmé Amidala in the “Star Wars” movies are now a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. These days, Portman is poised to win an Oscar for her performance in the psychological thriller…
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Opinion Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians
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Culture I ranked the NYC mayoral candidates exclusively based on their bagel orders
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News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
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Opinion Mike Huckabee’s stunning, terrifying new gift to the Israeli right
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Fast Forward Brick reading ‘Free Palestine’ thrown through window of Boston-area kosher grocery store
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Opinion Celebrating my daughter’s birthday in a bomb shelter, as missiles struck Tel Aviv
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Fast Forward ‘I trust his judgment completely’: Netanyahu praises Trump while urging tougher U.S. stance on Iran
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Fast Forward At least 11 killed across Israel amid multi-day barrage of missiles from Iran
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