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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He was Jewish and one of the 20th century’s greatest writers — but was he a Jewish writer?
For those already familiar with the work of Nelson Algren, best known for his 1949 novel, “The Man with the Golden Arm,” which starred Frank Sinatra in the iconic film version, Michael Caplan’s documentary, “Algren,” is an engaging tribute to a writer who championed the lives of hookers, hustlers and addicts who found solace in…
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Jewish photographer behind iconic Pulitzer-winning images hangs up his lens
If there’s a definitive Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, it’s “The Soiling of Old Glory” — Stanley Forman’s spot news winner for the Boston Herald American in 1976. In it, a youth turns an American flag into a weapon to use against a Black man at a school busing protest. Then again, make that two definitive photos:…
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Film & TV On the border of Turkey and Syria, a Jewish family desperate to flee a rapidly-changing world
Swiss-Kurdish director Mano Khalil’s “Neighbours” is a cinematically stunning, deeply unsettling film that is at once brutal and satiric, and at moments even magical. The central figure is six-year-old Sero (Serhed Khalil) and the story is seen through his trusting and innocent eyes. Loosely inspired by the director’s own childhood experiences, the movie, with its…
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Wordle’s massively popular (Jewish) predecessors
Writer’s note: After an outpouring of love for the word game Jotto, this article has been updated. If you are one of the countless smartphone users currently beguiled by a five by six grid of letters, you may be interested to know about Wordle’s Jewish precursors. Before Twitter was lit up by rows of gray,…
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Netflix’s newest Israeli hit is simplistic and racist, no matter how many times it name-drops the Oslo Accords
The Liam Neeson movie “Taken,” a high drama of exotic, Muslim traffickers and the great lengths parents will go to in order to protect their children, was an enormous hit. Netflix’s “The Girl From Oslo,” is built more or less identically, and it looks destined for the same success – it appeared on Netflix’s Top…
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Books Think the goblins in Harry Potter are antisemitic? Try the rest of British literature
British literature is so full of antisemitic tropes that the goblins in Harry Potter are now the most obvious ones
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No, the relentlessly ‘macho’ Norman Mailer hasn’t been canceled — should he be?
This month, Michael Wolff claimed that Norman Mailer has been “canceled” because a project to collect his political writings was discontinued by a publisher. Wolff charged that an essay by Mailer, “The White Negro,” (1957) a dated opus inspired by the Austrian Jewish psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich, was deemed offensive for today’s readers. Although Wolff’s claims…
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To you, he was the man behind Woodstock; to me, he was a connoisseur of latkes and matzo balls
My wonderful pal Michael Lang died this past Saturday evening. He was a kind and loving friend, an unstoppable force of nature, and, quite frankly, a legend and icon. At age 24, Michael was the co-creator of the Woodstock ’69 Festival and subsequently, he led festivals under that globally-recognized name. In business and in life,…
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Why there needs to be an Orthodox episode of ‘Queer Eye’
Picture this: A woman, her hair covered with a scarf, watches as Jonathan Van Ness, the hair and makeup expert for Netflix’s “Queer Eye” styles her sheitel. While he works, they chit chat about wig maintenance and the religious meaning of covering her hair. Finally, she puts it back on. “Yas, queen,” Jonathan says. “Slay!”…
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Remembering Bob Saget, Millennials’ embarrassing, bawdy, beloved Jewish dad
Children of the ‘90s discovered Bob Saget in phases – he was one of the rare comedy acts that aged with you, while never quite maturing. The comedian, who was found dead in a Florida hotel room Sunday at the age of 65, first entered my life as Danny Tanner, the neat freak single father…
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She co-wrote the soundtrack of modern Jewish America (and Barbra Streisand revered her)
The song lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who died Jan. 8 at age 93, proved that secure understanding of a Jewish cultural background can lead to empathy for a world of other human experiences. Celebrated for her songwriting duo with her husband, Alan Bergman, which produced hits such as “The Way We Were,” “The Windmills of Your…
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