Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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The Olympic cardboard beds were finally defeated — by the Israeli baseball team
It was one of the big early stories of the Tokyo Olympics: The cardboard beds. Sure, athletes were told the beds were an attempt to reduce waste, since the materials used to make them are sustainable and easily recyclable. But in the Olympic Village and international media alike, the rumor quickly spread that the beds…
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As Team Israel takes the field vs. U.S., a random history of the countries’ other rivalries
At 6 a.m. tomorrow, Team Israel will take on the United States in its second game of Olympics baseball. (Israel dropped its first game, 6-5, to South Korea in extra innings.) As you may have read before, Israel’s baseball team is largely made up of American-born players — who had to acquire Israeli citizenship to…
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Simone Biles prioritized her health. Kerri Strug never had the chance to.
As the rhinestones on her leotards declare, Simone Biles is the G.O.A.T. — the greatest gymnast of all time. Her record-breaking flips and twists have won her 30 gold, silver and bronze medals over her years competing at the Olympics and World Championships. So when she pulled out of the Olympic women’s team gymnastics final…
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70 years after U.N. convention, a new — and old — way to visualize refugee journeys
July 28 is probably not marked on your 2021 calendar. But, as the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Refugee Convention, it is one of the most consequential days of the year for the 82.4 million people who the U.N. noted were “forcibly displaced” in 2020. In the wake of the massive upheaval of World…
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Remembering Steven Weinberg, the Nobel-prize winning physicist who argued with God
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg, who died on July 23 at age 88, was publicly proud of being an atheist. But he retained a Jewish structure to his thinking throughout his life. Weinberg received the Nobel for his innovations, building on the work of Albert Einstein, in helping to understand how the tiniest components…
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Meet the Ben & Jerry’s franchisee pushing back against boycott — and his customers, who just want to cool off
It’s a high of 90 in New York, but the southeast corner of 104th and Broadway is shady with scaffolding seating. It helps that there’s ice cream nearby. Joel Gasman’s Ben & Jerry’s store, a handsome scoop shop with a mosaic pillar at the entrance, is supplying the usual bonanza of flavors and, beginning this…
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Jackie Mason’s racist remarks are also a part of his legacy
Jackie Mason, who died on Saturday at age 93, will forever hold a storied place in American comedy for helping introduce to the mainstream a brand of humor that was fearlessly, unapologetically Jewish. But the late comedian’s brazen style of commentary also carries a dark legacy in his history of racist remarks. In 1989, Jewish…
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How Jackie Mason remade the world of Jewish stand-up comedy
In the middle of the last century, American stand-up comedy became a subsidiary of the Jewish cultural-industrial complex. But the secret of its extraordinary success was that while its practitioners were obviously Jewish, their material was never too overtly Jewish. Except for Jackie Mason. The great names of the stand-up scene — Joan Rivers, Woody…
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Confronting America’s ugly history of forced sterilization
Peabody and Emmy award-winning documentarian Erika Cohn has been an activist-artist for a long time. Her film “The Judge” detailed the unprecedented experiences of the first woman judge appointed in the Middle East’s Shari’a courts, and “In Football We Trust” she explored the struggles of young Pacific Islander men determined to play professional football. Her…
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For 50 years of Greenpeace, inspiration from Jewish values and visionaries
This year, as Greenpeace celebrates 50 years of environmental activism, it’s a good time for a look at the powerful Jewish inspirations that have helped to inspire the non-governmental organization throughout its history. With the stated goal of ensuring the ability of the Earth to “nurture life in all its diversity,” Greenpeace campaigns on issues…
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A young man, an old man and the secrets of clamming
Sammy held the dark, odd-shaped, deep brown clump of stuff in his hand, showed it to me and said, ”Grandpa, is this doo-doo?” “NO-NO, no doo- doo, absolutely not,” I said. “It’s pure, clean, good mud. And that’s where the clams live.” “”Yuck, mud’s not clean; how can mud be clean?” Sammy and I had…
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