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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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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Jan 9, 2009
75 Years Ago in the Forward In the most recent issue of Tsienist, the monthly journal of the Zionist organization in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Independent Jewish Club began a major advertising campaign calling for a mass meeting of Jews in order to combat prostitution. Of the 3,000 prostitutes in Argentina, it is estimated that…
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Yo La Tengo Show Off Hanukkah’s Indie Rock of Ages
Night falls on Hoboken and candles light for the sixth “8 Nights of Hannukah with Yo La Tengo” at Maxwell’s. Although the Hanukkiah is upfront and proud, this is no Matisyahu concert — not least because musician Ira Kaplan’s mom had to correct the arrangement of the lit candles. But musically too — from the…
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Yid Vid: Hanukkah in Santa Monica — a Great Miracle Didn’t Happen There
As Hanukkah nears its end, the good folks at Temple Emanuel in Cherry Hill, N.J., can breathe easily. Their world-record of 541 dreidels spinning simultaneously has withstood a challenge mounted by Sha’arei Am in Santa Monica, Calif.: Take that, Tom Lehrer! UPDATE: There appears to be some uncertainty as to exactly who holds the dreidel…
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Jan 2, 2009
100 Years Ago in the Forward Ida Weiner, a 22-year-old bookkeeper, was shot to death by 26-year-old egg seller Izzy Cohen at the train station in Elizabeth, N.J. Cohen had won Weiner’s heart by showering her with presents, though the woman’s parents considered him “not too bright.” Weiner had regrets and broke up with Cohen,…
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Bielskis vs. Hollywood
Here’s a fast-paced Holocaust film with able, big-name stars Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber and directed by the accomplished Edward Zwick, who is sympathetically recounting a gripping tale of tough and resourceful Jews. So why is this reviewer disappointed? By all accounts, the three oldest Bielski brothers were heroic fighters who preserved the lives of…
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Looking at People Looking at the Jewish Body
**The Jewish Body ** By Melvin Konner Nextbook/Schocken, 304 pages, $22. Given the national uproar about pay-for-play politics, let me begin with a disclaimer: Mel Konner is a colleague of mine at Emory University (where I have now been for the past three years as distinguished professor of the liberal arts and sciences, as well…
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Prayers From China
Born and bred in China, Yiyun Li writes in English and has a deep affinity for Jewish writers because “they always write about the lowest, most tragic events in life, but they’re always very funny.” She isn’t sure how to explain it, but that combination of tragedy and comedy, best exemplified by her Russian-Jewish hero,…
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The Funniest Man You Never Heard Of
Some people have greatness thrust upon them, others thrust it upon themselves. When Irving Brecher was ready for greatness, he just took out an ad. In 1933, 19-year-old Brecher was ushering at a movie theater in midtown Manhattan. For kicks, he mailed jokes to New York columnists; once in a while he had the thrill…
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The Old New Vision of Israeli-German Photograph
The work of Liselotte Grschebina provides a glimpse into a golden era of photography, when artists and advertisers were starting to recognize the medium’s potential. It also gives valuable insights into life in Weimar Germany and the British Mandate of Palestine. But until now, hardly anybody has seen Grschebina’s work. This is because until eight…
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Borges’s Zionist Bent: Newly Translated Poems
Jorge Luis Borges visited Israel twice. The first trip came at the invitation of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. It was in recognition of his philo-Semitism, and, in particular, his positive views on Israel. Borges had been active in Casa Argentina en Israel-Tierra Santa, a project that sought to build an Argentine cultural center in Jerusalem….
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Whose Masters Of The Universe?
Gloom is certainly widespread as the city’s masters of the universe bump down to earth,” wrote the International Herald Tribune’s Roger Cohen from London on December 17. That phrase has been getting a lot of mileage recently. In a dispatch beginning “Have the Masters of the Universe lost their super powers?” Reuters correspondent Daniel Trotta…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
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News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
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Opinion Ireland’s prime minister gave condolences for Hitler’s death — here’s why that’s a contemporary problem
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Fast Forward The fires in Israel are under control — but debate is raging over their cause
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Fast Forward Argentina declassifies more than 1,800 files on Nazi escape via ‘rat-lines’ to South America
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Fast Forward Betar USA founder banned from World Zionist Congress over feud with Israeli firebrand Shai Davidai
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