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
-
How Putin and Trump loyalists are illegitimately redefining the word legitimate (and language itself)
The word “legitimate” is suddenly hot — and it’s being increasingly used to justify the unjustifiable. In the recent rare and unified front of Republicans and Democrats, rushing to sanction Russia as it begins an invasion of Ukraine, it may be convenient to stop thinking about the Republican National Committee’s statement that the Jan. 6…
-
This Amsterdam neighborhood was once inhabited by Jews. None are left to celebrate its centennial
Outside 58 Weidestraat in Amsterdam’s Betondorp district, two brass stones lie set into the sidewalk. Known by the Dutch as stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones,” the square plaques are engraved with the names of Jews who moved to this neighborhood upon its creation after the First World War and were deported during the Second. Herman Richard…
-
For the end of an era, the top five Jewish moments of “Arthur”
I grew up without cable, which means there was no “Powerpuff Girls,” no “Hey Arnold,” no “Lizzy McGuire.” I’ve still never seen the beloved “Rugrats” Passover special. What I did get was PBS, and with it, of course, “Arthur.” The friendly aardvark and his cast of friends were always there for me; I watched “Arthur”…
The Latest
-
Books A Hasidic village in New York is paving the way for a ‘white, Christian, conservative’ America
Years ago, friends of mine visited the Satmar village of Kiryas Joel, established in 1977 in upstate New York. “It was amazing,” one of them said of the streets and shops filled with men and women in traditional black clothing. “Literally everyone was Hasidic. It was like visiting Eastern Europe a century ago.” Actually, I…
-
He survived a Nazi work camp to shape the world of modern film
In October 1949, Jonas Mekas arrived in New York City broke and nearly broken. The Lithuanian artist had survived a Nazi work camp and several years as a refugee, and was supposed to travel on to Chicago where a job in a bakery awaited. But the buzz of New York City energized him and so…
-
Abraham Lincoln’s greatest gift to the Jews
The roots of Abraham Lincoln’s Judeophilia can be traced back to his childhood in Indiana
-
The secret Jewish history of Teddy Roosevelt
Roosevelt was the first president to appoint a Jew to a Cabinet position
-
In Season 4, Mrs. Maisel tries to have it all
Miriam “Midge” Maisel has never played by the rules. But she’s back, finally, for Season 4 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and this time, she’s actively trying to break them all. Midge has been kicked off of the tour that was supposed to make her career and suddenly can’t get a gig anywhere, she’s taken…
-
In painting a survivor of the Holocaust, a feeling of overwhelming and indescribable privilege
“Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust,” an exhibition of paintings commissioned by Charles, Prince of Wales was previously shown in Buckingham Palace and soon may be visited at The Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland, until June 6, 2022. In the catalogue, portraits of Holocaust survivors now living in the…
-
Ceramics, Broadway, gay rights activism, Tevye, memoirs — for Harvey Fierstein, they’re all parts of the same quilt
“Hello, Merv,” the unmistakably familiar voice says, gravelly yet warm. “What can I tell you, cookie?” The first thing I want to ask Harvey Fierstein, the 67-year-old multiple Tony Award-winning actor, playwright and librettist, is why he decided to write a memoir. “COVID hit,” he says. “Which I’m sure is the reason for most people…
-
Before the revolution, a little peace and quiet — now there’s a radical idea
The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas By Gal Beckerman Crown, 331 pages, $28.99 Have social media — especially mega sites such as Facebook and Twitter — played indispensable roles in social change in recent years? Your guess, and mine, would likely be yes. Not so fast, says Gal Beckerman in his…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward ‘Murdered for speaking truth’: Netanyahu and US Jewish leaders mourn Charlie Kirk
- 2
Fast Forward The fraudster at the center of an NBA scandal once proclaimed ‘tzedek tzedek tirdof’
- 3
News A new kaffiyeh policy is designed to help divided Jews pray together. Is this the Jewish future?
- 4
Opinion To save the Jewish state, pro-Israel Jews must break from Netanyahu
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Charlie Kirk and Alan Berg: 2 murders, 41 years apart, show the painful perils of polarization
-
Opinion Is the true Zionist ideal blind support of Israel, or loving criticism?
-
Fast Forward ‘Murdered for speaking truth’: Netanyahu and US Jewish leaders mourn Charlie Kirk
-
Books How Carole King moved the earth
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
