This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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Offbeat Israel: The Bollywood-Style Video Taking Israel By Storm
The video that has Israel talking this week is, believe it or not, a Bollywood-style musical by the country’s leading weapon’s manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It has emerged that at Aero India, a trade fair organized last month by India’s Ministry of Defense, Rafael screened a movie of Israeli dancers in Indian costumes singing…
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Felix Mendelssohn: Music That ‘Keeps Working’
Felix Mendelssohn was still alive when the New York Philharmonic was founded in 1842. “He most certainly influenced our orchestra from its inception,” Philharmonic archivist Barbara Haws told the Forward. “Our very first program featured Mendelssohn. In fact, before his death in 1848, a total of six Mendelssohn works were performed in our first 14…
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Aharon Appelfeld on Living and Dying in Jerusalem
Though he recently turned 77, Aharon Appelfeld remains one of modern Hebrew literature’s freshest voices. His work has been celebrated in Israel and around the world by prize committees, critics and other writers, including his friend Philip Roth. The nearly three dozen books to his name have been translated into numerous languages, making him one…
The Latest
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Purim Podcast
The Backward’s Purim Spoof podcast, featuring Backward editors Anthony Weiss and Daniel Friedman in conversation with Gabrielle Birkner, looks at the Anti-Defamation League’s decision to honor Bernard Madoff, the retirement of the Elders of Zion, Adam Sandler’s meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, Jay-Z’s new Jewish dating Web site, and the existence of hot Israeli models….
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Offbeat Israel: Mishloach Manot for Hard Times
The animation director of Waltz With Bashir has released a short movie intended to rally opinion against the Gaza blockade. Yoni Goodman’s new film, “Closed Zone,” consists of animation and real footage from Gaza, and addresses the lack of freedom of movement for Gazans. In it, a young boy pursues a flying bird — a…
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Elders of Zion to Retire
The Elders of Zion, the venerable and shadowy Jewish organization that controls the international banking industry, news media and Hollywood, has announced that it is disbanding so that members can retire to Florida and live out their golden years on the golf course. “We had a good run,” said one senior Elder, reminiscing over old…
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A Heartwarming Drawing
Click on the thumbnail to the right for a larger version: Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His comics, which are frequently published in Jewcy, can be seen at his Web site at www.evcomics.com. []: https://forward.com/backward-purim/
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ADL Bestows Honor on Madoff
[ ![][2]][2] Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff was re-graced yesterday when the Anti-Defamation League awarded him the Inadvertently Good for the Jews prize for his work in “demolishing a centuries-old stereotype: that Jews are good with money.” In a lavish ceremony held near the breakfast nook of the Madoffs’ Upper East Side apartment — where Madoff…
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The Middle East: Peace At Last!
[ ![][2]][2] After thousands of years of communal strife, a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement has been reached that will make war, bloodshed and religious violence relics of history. In a joint statement, leaders of Israel, Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria all hailed the peace agreement as “the dawning of a new age of peace, brotherhood…
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Wonka Factory Receives Hekhsher
[ ![][2]][2] *Following is the required report filed by the Unorthodox Union inspection team and intercepted by the Backward. It describes the full process they undertook to determine whether a particular sweets-producing entity complies with the highest-level standards for kosher certification. * Kosher inspection team arrived at Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, now seeking kosher certification….
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Philip Roth’s New Novel About Philip Roth
[ ![][2]][2] THE PLAGIARIST By Philip Roth Houghton Mifflin. 212 pages. $25 Philip Roth has always been a conflicted warrior, balancing his high regard for his literary and sexual talents against a contempt for his own venality. His newest novel, “The Plagiarist,” is, yet again, a recapitulation of his overarching career, but the master has…
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