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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Music
How a dysfunctional New York punk band personified the postwar Jewish struggle
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. Like the Beatles, the Ramones were four distinct personalities. There was the…
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In Bob Dylan’s mysterious 1975 masterpiece, is he referencing the Talmud?
Dozens of Dylan songs can be considered Jewish — and 'Idiot Wind' more than most.
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Music When pop music’s fascination with Nazi symbols and history went way over the line
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. MAGA politicians and talk show hosts with the gall to compare mask…
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What’s a Jewish song anyway — and how can you recognize one when you hear it?
Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here. What is a Jewish song? Is it one that connects you to…
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Telling the Story: The most important Jewish Civil Rights leader you may not have heard of
This is not a trick question: Who was the most important – or the highest-ranking, or most influential – Jew in the civil rights movement? While many may quickly answer Rabbi Abraham Heschel or the martyrs Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, and those with a deeper knowledge of movement history might suggest Martin Luther King’s…
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‘Once We Were Slaves’ examines fluidity of race through a Jewish lens
Have you heard the story of the Jewish mother and children who were born enslaved in the Caribbean and became some of the wealthiest Jews in New York? Professor Laura Arnold Leibman was researching Jewish communities in Barbados when she discovered two small ivory portraits belonging to a Jewish heiress from New York. She traced…
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Books No, Anne Frank’s diary would not be an adequate replacement for ‘Maus’ in Tennessee schools
It would seem counterintuitive that a graphic novel featuring mice and cats as Jews and Nazis would be a more effective Holocaust teaching tool than the diary of a young girl who died in Bergen-Belsen. Yet, after a Tennessee school district unanimously voted to ban Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” from its eighth grade curriculum due to…
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Is this particular strain of antisemitism and bigotry becoming endemic?
The past two years have made amateur epidemiologists of us all. We have learned that “aerosol” applies to more than hairsprays, that “crushing the curve” means more than slamming a pitch into the bleachers, and that ingesting bleaches will not crush the coronavirus. We have also learned the distinction between pandemic — the exponential explosion…
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Art ‘Blue Like Me’: Indian-Jewish roots explored in artist’s latest books
Siona Benjamin was raised Jewish in India’s Hindu and Muslim society where she attended Catholic and Zoroastrian schools. A two-time Fulbright scholar, author and book illustrator, she now lives in America where she creates art that explores her identity and transcultural issues. Benjamin’s work is inspired by styles of Indian and Persian miniature painting, Christian…
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Yes, Christian Dior’s designs were beautiful — but they come with a lot of Jewish history no one talks about
Any exhibit of haute couture is obviously stunning. How could it not be, with palatial displays and flashy gowns, shining embellishments and vibrant colors? Fashion is meant to be striking to look at. And yet, in “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams,” currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum, it feels like something is missing. The…
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Al Franken says America feels like Nazi Germany in the ’30s. Is he right?
When it comes to democracy and being Jewish, former Senator Al Franken knows whereof he speaks. But, given his other vocation as a comedy writer, some critics will surely think his latest remarks – likening America today to early Nazi Germany – are a joke. In the most recent episode of “The Al Franken Podcast,”…
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