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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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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The Jewish mentor Sidney Poitier never got to thank
Sidney Poitier, the Oscar-winning actor, director and civil rights icon who died today at 94, often credited a more obscure figure for his success: an old Jewish waiter. When Poitier was a newly-arrived Bahamian in Queens, N.Y., washing dishes at a restaurant, and hoping to make it as an actor, he would bring newspapers to…
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How a forgotten Sidney Poitier film helps explain our current political moment
Editor’s Note; Sidney Poitier had died at the age of 94. As we mark that occasion, we look back at this article about the actor, author, and civil rights activist’s first film. It is a tribute to the civil rights movement and its recent incarnation as Black Lives Matter that, according to recent polls, a…
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Yiddish porn, Einstein’s letters and Rabbi Schneerson’s sermons united in ‘largest single remnant of Jewish life’ in Europe
In 2014, Jonathan Brent discovered something he didn’t know he was missing. Walking into the Wroblewski Library in Vilnius, he saw a long table covered with boxes. Inside were documents belonging to the organization he heads, YIVO, the Institute for Jewish research, which was founded in Vilna and moved its operations to New York in…
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A beloved book, a classic Italian film and now, a disturbingly timely opera
“The Garden of the Finzi-Continis” had what its creators call a “difficult birth.” Over a decade in the making, the opera, adapted from Giorgio Bassani’s book of the same name, which Vittorio De Sica made into an Oscar-winning 1970 film, was meant to be a part of the Minnesota Opera’s 2011 and then 2013 season….
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How a film lover from Kingston, New York, grew up to be the inimitable Peter Bogdanovich
Peter Bogdanovich, the bandana-throated, Oscar-nominated director-writer who was a bridge figure between New Hollywood and the Hollywood Golden Age has died at 82. Encompassing such classics as “The Last Picture Show,” “Paper Moon” and “What’s Up, Doc?” Bogdanovich’s career ranged from intimate dramas to broad screwball comedies. He later charmed new audiences as Dr. Melfi’s…
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Yiddish פֿאַר וואָס הערט מען ניט וועגן דעם גלעצנדיקן וווּקס פֿון דער ישׂראל־בערזע? Why aren’t we hearing about the dramatic growth of the Israeli stock market?
וואָלט דער אָפּרוף געווען אַנדערש, ווען דער ציל פֿון די טעראָריסטן וואָלט ניט געווען ייִדן, נאָר אַן אַנדער גרופּע?
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