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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When Pancho Villa attacked the U.S. in 1916, he was after the head of this Jewish merchant
When Pancho Villa and his troops raided Columbus, New Mexico in 1916—one of the only times in the 20th century that a foreign army ever invaded the continental United States— the famous Mexican revolutionary had only one goal: to bring back the head of a Lithuanian-born Jewish merchant named Sam Ravel. Villa’s men ransacked the…
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I, too, like pumpkin spice and leaves — can a Jewish girl do Christian Girl Autumn?
If hot girl summer is all about living large, wearing little and doing whatever you want, Christian Girl Autumn is the inverse; it’s all about chunky sweaters, big scarves and carefully coiffed curls. I, too, love autumn; I’m a Libra, and this is my season. I’ve had pumpkin pie instead of cake for my birthday…
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How Judah Benjamin — a Jewish Confederate slave-owner who decried slavery — came to embody so many contradictions
In 1842, Judah P. Benjamin stood inside a New Orleans courtroom and declared that “slavery is against the law of nature.” It was part of his winning argument as to why an insurance company didn’t have to pay the slave ship Creole’s owners after its cargo of enslaved people revolted and escaped. Meanwhile, less than…
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The Asian-Jewish film series ‘LUNAR’ is back for a second season. Watch an episode here
Why are there so few Asian Jews in the movies? What does it mean for a TV show to be “authentic?” What’s up with “Mulan?” All these topics come up on this episode of LUNAR, a film series on Asian-Jewish identity which packs a lot into each of its segments. The project dates 2020, when…
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All the history Mel Brooks will cover in his new ‘History of the World’ (probably)
It’s finally happening. After 40 years, Mel Brooks will give us the long-promised “History of the World Part II.” He has a lot of catching up to do. While Brooks, who will deliver the sequel as a Hulu variety show with the help of Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes and others, teased some segments of the…
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In this brilliant exhibit, you can’t look at the art unless you let it look at you
At first glance, there’s nothing explicitly Jewish about Barbara Kruger’s work. Yet after viewing “Thinking of You, I Mean Me, I Mean You,” the current retrospective of her five decades of work at the Art Institute of Chicago, on view through January 24, 2022, certain Jewish themes emerge: the value of omnivorous reading, high and…
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Why having faith in James Bond can feel a little like believing in God
There is a scene about halfway through “No Time To Die,” the latest James Bond movie, where Bond is trapped in a locked room on a sinking boat in the middle of an ocean. Like everybody else in the theater, I had no doubt he would escape. This is a film that opens with Bond…
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The Great British Bake Off finally got Jewish food (sort of) right
“The Great British Bake Off” is the most comforting television around; it was my balm in the early pandemic lockdown. Crisp accents, bad British humor, the low-stakes drama of cakes coming out stodgy or tarts ending up with soggy bottoms — nothing more calming. Except when the show takes on Jewish foods. Last year, the…
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No, David Zucker, you couldn’t make ‘Airplane!’ today — but why would you want to?
In a lengthy essay published in the New York Post, we learn that filmmaker David Zucker was recently asked an inane question at an anniversary screening of his 1980 film “Airplane!” “Could you make ‘Airplane!’ today?” an audience member asked. Zucker’s response was, “Of course, we could. Just without the jokes.” Really? Is there a…
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New, bizarre (and sometimes gross) ‘Data’ about the Jewishness of ‘Star Trek’
Fan Fiction A Mem-Noir: Inspired by True Events By Brent Spiner St. Martin’s Press, 256page, $27.99 What is it with “Star Trek and the Jews?” Leonard Nimoy imbued Mr. Spock with Jewishness from his Orthodox upbringing and William Shatner went to Jewish summer camp. Some people, wrongly, think that Gene Roddenberry, creator of “Star Trek,”…
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In 1961, a shameful moment when the horrors of WWII seemed to be returning
This past weekend, Paris marked the 60th anniversary of one of the darkest moments in its recent history — a terrible moment that reminds both French Muslims and French Jews of their fragile place in France. On the evening of October 17, 1961, more than 20,000 Algerian immigrants boarded suburban trains and buses to meet…
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