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
-
First Fruit
‘Heartburn — raisins I don’t eat. Take mine.” Jed offers his packet of raisins to the young man in the window seat beside him. “Thanks,” Ron says, “I’m not really hungry.” “Who knows when we’ll get lunch? It’s a long flight. I’m Jed, by the way.” “No, thanks, maybe later.” The two men shake hands….
-
Strange Bedfellows of Art and Politics
“I have never hated the individual Jew — yourself I have cherished as a friend, but you will know that I speak in all honesty when I say that I have loved you, not because of your race but in spite of it.” — Martin Schulse in a letter to his friend and business partner,…
-
It’s a Wild Planet, Indeed
Daniel Grossman can’t help but compare his life to Willy Wonka’s in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” As the founder of Wild Planet, Grossman, 45, spends his day among loads of toys that he manufactures and distributes. The 11-year-old company sells eight brands of gender-neutral, nonviolent toys in the $10-$30 range, including the top-selling Spy…
The Latest
-
False Messiahs and Whirling Dervishes: A Scholar’s Fresh Take on an Old Topic
The Sabbatean Prophets By Matt Goldish Harvard University Press, 240 pages, $39.95. ——- The following dire, revolutionary proclamation issues forth from a charismatic provocateur in Gaza: “None will be saved from these tribulations except those dwelling in this place. The [very] name of the place [connoting strength] expresses her nature. And with the advent of…
-
At 80, Lang Still Keeps the Flame Alive
Guests savored paprika chicken, dumplings, duck liver plus 80 cakes at the June 15 surprise 80th birthday party for George Lang thrown by his wife, Jennifer, daughter Gigi and son Simon. Held at the La Palestra gym — next door to the Café des Artistes, which Lang owns — there was room for Hungarian folk…
-
New Look at False Messiah
well before Shabbetai Zevi’s total defection from Judaism. That latter catastrophe led to the deeper, antinomian apostasy of the later Jewish Sabbateans, as well as to the Donmeh, the school of Muslim believers in Shabbetai Zevi, which persists, very secretly, in Turkey today. Even in contemporary America, though limited to rather marginal Jewish circles, the…
-
July 2, 2004
100 YEARS AGO Sixteen people were wounded, seven of them critically — including one police officer — in a race riot that occurred between Italians and Irish on East 15th Street in New York City. The cause of the riot is thought to be old neighborhood grievances. Children started initial arguments, but soon their families…
-
On Exhibit: The Infamous 1492 Decree
The original decree ordering the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 will come to New York this month, as part of an exhibit commemorating the 500th anniversary of the death of Queen Isabella I. Titled “Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Two Worlds (1451-1504),” the presentation also will feature illuminated manuscripts, rare documents, 17th-century paintings,…
-
Please Touch the Art
Hours before her troupe’s first public performance, in 2002, Adina Tal faced a quandary unlike any posed to other directors: How would her cast members know that the audience was applauding? The scenario was not uncommon for the director of the theater group Nalaga’at (“Do Touch”), who, since forming the group in late 1999, has…
-
To Get to Carnegie, Practice Your Yiddish
Putting a new spin on the old saw, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” Moishe Rosenfeld, producer of the June 3 Folksbiene Yiddish Theatre Gala concert starring Neil Sedaka, told the 3,000-strong audience: “Practice, practice your Yiddish!” And so mameloshn bounced off that venerable hall’s acoustically famed walls with the Klezmatics launching the evening…
-
In Defense Of His Amorality
Isaac Bashevis Singer’s admirers describe him as a man of impossible paleness, “translucent” skin laced with veins the same shade of blue as his bulging eyes. They say he was small. In photographs, his right eyebrow arches and his thread-thin upper lip sneers. His ears are large and nearly pointed, elegant despite their size, and…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Exclusive Mahmoud Khalil wants to reassure you
- 2
Opinion Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews
- 3
News Brad Lander joins call to end U.S. aid to Israel, in quest to replace Rep. Dan Goldman
- 4
Opinion Mahmoud Khalil’s reassurances are bad for Jews but even worse for Palestinians
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish World VIDEO: A song about a Jewish girl, Khaye, who died in Treblinka
-
Film & TV He committed murder today. Or maybe yesterday. He doesn’t know.
-
Yiddish עכטע חסידישע מעשׂיות, איבערגעזעצטע אױף פּױלישAuthentic Hasidic tales, translated into Polish
די אַנטאָלאָגיע ווערט באַגלייט מיט פֿילמעלעך, וווּ באַקאַנטע פּוילישע פּערזענלעכקײטן לײענען אָדער דערצײלן איבער די מעשׂיות.
-
News This national park would honor a Jewish philanthropist — if Republicans get back on board
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
