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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Purim in Bulgaria – With Kaddish
During the year my husband and I lived in Sofia, Bulgaria, we joined local Jews in observing the annual cycle of religious holidays. All were memorable, but Purim was especially meaningful. In addition to hearing the Megillah’s account of how the Jews of ancient Persia were saved from death at Haman’s hand, Bulgarian Jews recall…
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Letters From Permanent Exile in Argentina
The poetry of Juan Gelman bears urgent witness to the bankruptcy of Argentine morality. Rather than addressing abstract political questions, though, Gelman focuses on the small things: a handkerchief, a conversation on Carlos Gardel, the ways to remember a family moment. He thrives on exploring the quotidian aspects of life under tyranny. How do people…
The Latest
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Named for a Rapist?
An e-mailer signing herself as only “Phyllis” asks, “Why is the flower that we call a pansy known as *amnon v’tamar *in Hebrew?” In the Bible, Amnon and Tamar are two names that go together. Chapter 13 of the second Book of Samuel relates how Amnon, a son of King David by one of David’s…
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Toppling Hitler’s Role Model
When Vienna-born neurobiologist Eric Kandel won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2000, he took pains to clarify that the honor was awarded to a Jewish American rather than an Austrian. Kandel fled his hometown after the Nazi Anschluss in 1938, and his remark prompted Austria’s then president, Thomas Klestil, to phone him and ask,…
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In Search of Klezmer Goulash
Budapest’s crumbling VII district is like a noir film. Except for a few frothing drunks, the former Jewish ghetto is now a ghost town. Only the slot machines in the Roma, or Gypsy, bars cut the blackness. Below the burnt-out street lamps or within the abandoned buildings, some clandestine act is waiting to unfold. And…
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March 5, 2010
100 Years Ago in the forward A small riot occurred in New York City on Allen Street between Broome and Grand Streets at Messing and Gottfried’s Bakery, where knife-wielding thugs hired by the owners met local bakers. As several bakers from a nearby bakery were walking by on a break, thugs guarding Messing’s non-union bakery…
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Jewlicious: Celebration of Jewish Cool
I’ve just spent my entire weekend at the sixth annual Jewlicious Festival in Long Beach, Calif., and I’m exhausted. Between sundown Friday and Sunday afternoon, I have eaten Jewish food, exercised with a Jewish boxer, laughed at Jewish comics and listened to Jewish music. I have talked about the Jewish past and argued about the…
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Books A Gangster Grows in Brooklyn
Somehow I missed this when it appeared in November, but Purim seems as good a time as any to catch up on a book whose title character (sort of) is named “Shushan Cats.” “The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats” is a novel by Hesh Kestin (previously the European bureau chief for Forbes), which takes place…
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Fug Right Off
Tuli Kupferberg, came into this world speaking Yiddish, and he’s apparently determined to leave it making wisecracks on YouTube. The 86-year-old poet and songwriter, best known as a member of the outrageous 1960s rock band The Fugs, is now blind and confined to his Manhattan loft. But that hasn’t stopped him from recording short humorous…
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Talking With Robert Brustein and Zalmen Mlotek About Shlemiels
Robert Brustein, artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, is known for cutting edge, often experimental productions, and is not particularly associated with Jewish theater (actually, Peak Performances goes to great lengths to distance itself from the term, “Jewish theater,” so let’s say instead, “theater with Jewish roots”). But speaking by telephone to the Forward…
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A Kindler, Gentler Jihad
[ ![][2]][2] Palestinian Islamic Jihad is undergoing a multimillion dollar image makeover and will now be known simply as “jihad,” the militant organization announced in February. Hired to enhance its reputation as a “cutting-edge” radical group, the public relations firm AKPD has taken immediate action. The firm has amended the logo to make it more…
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