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
-
Once exceptional, the lives of American Jews have become lachrymose
“The Tears of History: From Kishinev to Pittsburgh,” by the renowned French historian Pierre Birnbaum, takes its title from the work of the influential Jewish-American historian Salo Baron. In rejecting what he called the “lachrymose” account of Jewish history, Baron instead insisted that, both in medieval Europe and modern America, our history was more fortunate…
-
How a radio pioneer named Steve Post set the stage for Howard Stern and Marc Maron
The best part of “Playing in the FM Band,” a new documentary about revolutionary radio personality Steve Post, finds our hero trapped in the bathroom of WNYC. “In the instant before my flesh made contact with the seat, I realized that I was clutching a cold, metal object in my right hand,” Post says in…
-
The story of a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor needs no contemporary parallels to be relevant
“I Am Here,” Jordy Sank’s 72-minute documentary, is at once a memorial to the millions who died in the Holocaust and an impassioned response to Holocaust deniers. But at its core it’s a celebration of Ella Blumenthal on the occasion of her 98th birthday. Now 100, Blumenthal is one of the oldest living survivors to…
The Latest
-
Jewish writers from former Soviet Union watch invasion with fear, dread — and recognition
Novelist Zhanna Slor was born a few weeks after the Chernobyl disaster, in the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Her timely arrival probably saved her father’s life. An engineer, he was slated to join cleanup crews at the radioactive site — until Slor’s mother demanded he stick around for the birth. That family story returned to…
-
Farewell Mr. Entenmann, your cookies and cakes live on
The Entenmann’s Freezer was taller than I was. To be fair, at 5-foot-2, most things are taller than I am: grocery store shelves, that chain to turn on the overhead fan, your average adult human. The Entenmann’s Freezer was an iconic part of my childhood. Most families that have an extra freezer use it to…
-
Timeless anthems, Hanukkah lyrics and Yiddish illustrations — Woody Guthrie contained multitudes
Just about everyone can sing a verse or two of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” a folk ballad so popular that it can almost double as an American hymn. But did you know that Guthrie also wrote Hanukkah lyrics, sketched illustrations for Yiddish poems, drew a colorful birth announcement of his son Arlo…
-
The 33 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time (that we left off our list)
Much as we expected when we published “The 150 greatest Jewish pop songs of all time” on January 31, 2022, readers responded with their likes, dislikes, and suggestions for songs that did not make the list. Attendees at the Zoom event we hosted about the list offered their opinions, and at our invitation, readers sent…
-
Nominated for 13 Oscars, she hasn’t won one yet — that’s a record
Diane Warren is the Susan Lucci of the Oscars
-
With Jewish practice being constantly updated, it’s about time for Judaica to catch up
For a religion that has never been static, Judaism has been utilizing many of the same outdated, unchanging ritual objects for what seems like eternity. Judaica has never kept pace with Judaism’s ever-evolving rituals and beliefs, and that’s precisely what Montreal-based potter Sarah Dolin is determined to change. Dolin creates updated, progressive Jewish ritual objects…
-
Adrift after a biblical catastrophe, trying to survive a flood of a different sort
Clean Air By Sarah Blake Algonquin Books, 320pp, $26.95 Sarah Blake’s new novel “Clean Air” is set in a near future with just a hint of the supernatural. It’s a decade after “The Turning” when the trees shed so much pollen into the air that the atmosphere became unbreathable for humans. The trees have, ironically,…
-
Rallying behind Mila Kunis, Jews in entertainment raise millions for Ukraine
A Ukraine fundraiser launched by Ukrainian-American Jewish actor Mila Kunis has racked up $17 million in donations in four days — and some of the biggest Jewish names in the entertainment industry are atop the donor list. Since Kunis and her husband, her “That ‘70s Show” co-star Ashton Kutcher, launched the GoFundMe page — vowing…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
- 2
Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
- 3
News Protesters picket Manhattan synagogue over Israel real estate sale, testing Mamdani and new law
- 4
Opinion I’m an Orthodox student in NYC. I’m grateful Mamdani vetoed the school buffer bill
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion I discovered anti-Zionism at the University of Michigan. I’m glad it lives on there
-
Opinion An alarming new battleground in campus fights over Israel
-
Looking Forward My artist grandmother nearly made aliyah. I don’t know what she’d think of Israel today
-
Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.