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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On the far right, there are no contradictions, only virulent antisemitism — a front-row view of Charlottesville
The dramatic 16-day courtroom trial, which ended with a whopping $26 million in damages assessed to more than a dozen individual white supremacists and hate groups for their role in the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, also offered a window onto what’s really happening inside today’s far right. Among the courtroom observers…
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Forty years later, one Jew’s apocalyptic fears look a lot like prophecies
After the Nazis exterminated a third of European Jewry, surviving remnants of many Jewish communities fled to America. Of those, many came to New York City. And a disproportionate number came to the Boro Park neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 1976, filmmaker Steve Brand began filming writer and activist Yossi Klein (known, since he moved to…
The Latest
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Art For decades, a Jewish family has sought the return of their beloved painting — can the Supreme Court make that happen?
Twenty-two years ago, photographer Claude Cassirer received a call he never expected. His family’s long-lost Nazi-looted painting by the French-Jewish painter Camille Pissarro had been found. It was hanging in a Spanish museum. The painting, “Rue Saint-Honoré, Apres Midi, Effet de Pluie” depicts the grand avenues of modern Paris glistening during an afternoon rain. It…
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Enough with the insincere apologies for antisemitism — and enough with the Holocaust comparisons that inspire them
Yet another set of public figures have compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust, an ever-growing club that never fails to draw ire and condemnations from prominent rabbis, Holocaust museums and just about every Jew on Twitter. Inevitably, the apologies came shortly thereafter. “It is never okay to compare anything to the evil of Nazi Germany….
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In Baltimore, a Jewish museum captures the precarity — and beauty — of American Jewish life
The improbable hybrid of a tallit, a Jewish prayer shawl, and a sajjada, a Muslim prayer rug. A family recipe for an Iraqi date pastry that evokes layers of Arab-Jewish identity. Glazed stoneware for trans Jews to use in ritual practice. A film of screen recordings and Zoom exchanges about disability and displacement. These works,…
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From Basra to the Chelsea Hotel — My father’s journey
Editor’s Note: The artist George Chemeche died Jan. 11, 2022 at age 89. To mark this solemn occasion, we are republishing this remembrance of the artist’s life and work by his daughter, Amanda Chemeche. My father, George Chemeche, is 87 years old. I live with him here in the Chelsea Hotel. Since the onset of…
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On TikTok, she offers a spicy daily take on Talmud
A non-Orthodox woman with bleach-blonde hair, Anzovin might not look like what most people conjure when asked to think of someone who studies Talmud
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Sexy, vibrant and daring, this is not your typical Jewish film festival fare
In the annals of Jewish film festivals, “Sin La Habana” is likely the only entry to begin with a Santeria ritual involving the sacrifice of chickens. Sadly, the film, playing as part of New York’s Jewish Film Festival Jan. 15, is also one of a select few to spotlight a Mizrahi bris. The feature debut…
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Would the Jewish writer of ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ support filibuster reform?
When Ted Cruz read “Green Eggs and Ham” to protest Obamacare, he was probably thinking of Jimmy Stewart. The divisive tradition of the filibuster, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is now hoping to bypass to bring voting rights to the floor, was never so memorably committed to film as in Frank Capra’s 1939 film…
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In an overlooked comic from the early 1970s, the most Jewish superhero story ever told
“Eternals,” a movie based on a Marvel comic about immortal agents of giant space gods, arrived on Disney+ Jan. 12. The “Absolute Fourth World by Jack Kirby Vol. 2” comes out Jan. 18. It’s an omnibus collection of DC Comics’ sprawling saga about warring alien gods. Though these comics are by rival companies, they’re actually…
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How the U.S. wined and dined Nazis, then destroyed the evidence, in Netflix doc
In the wake of World War II, the world united in an attempt to bring top Nazi officials to justice. Though many attempted to flee, they were hunted down; some were assassinated by Mossad, and others were prosecuted in military tribunals and widely-publicized hearings such as the Nuremberg Trials. Those who evaded capture remained the…
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Culture I ranked the NYC mayoral candidates exclusively based on their bagel orders
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News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
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Opinion Mike Huckabee’s stunning, terrifying new gift to the Israeli right
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News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
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Fast Forward Maccabiah Games postponed to 2026, as Israel-Iran war disruptions start to pile up
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