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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In the face of tragedy, Rep. Jamie Raskin is an optimist
Despite the gravity of the moment, Rep. Jamie Raskin seemed to be having a great time during Trump’s impeachment trial in early 2021. A former professor of constitutional law, Raskin appeared, at moments, to have forgotten that he wasn’t in the classroom, gesturing as he spoke impassionedly about the meaning of the Constitution. It seemed…
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I was Jerry Lewis’ secretary; I believe what people are saying about him
Recent stories about Jerry Lewis having harassed and assaulted actresses brought back memories I’d chosen to forget from the year and a half I worked as the comic’s secretary. Twenty-three and new to Hollywood, I was excited to be hired by the internationally-known star who played an adorable shlemiel in movies and onstage. But I…
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‘The Automat’ remembers when a nickel could buy the American dream
It was my grandmother who tipped me off to “The Automat,” a new documentary about the rise and fall of Horn & Hardart restaurants. It’s no wonder why. These eateries, which for over a century drew a diverse crowd of New Yorkers and Philadelphians with the promise of cheap, quality food and mechanical pageantry, seem…
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At 78, a long-anticipated theatrical debut (with thanks to Edward Albee)
I’m 78 years old, and I’m a budding, soon-to-be-produced playwright. To explain how this happened, we need to go back 16 years. “I’d like to think,” Edward Albee said to me, “that maybe I’ve made people think about things a little bit.” It was the fall of 2005 and we were sitting in his TriBeCa…
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How the Wild West was won (with the help of some little-known Jews)
Before Gene Autry. Before Roy Rogers. Before all that, there was Bronco Billy, a star of the 1903 film “The Great Train Robbery,” which is widely considered to be the first American western. Bronco Billy was played by Gilbert M. Anderson, better known to his family as Maxwell Aronson, the sixth child of Henry and…
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He made Moon Knight Jewish. He doesn’t care if Disney+ has other ideas.
'If he’s not Jewish because there’s a good artistic reason, that's perfectly OK,' said Moon Knight writer Alan Zelenetz
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How Putin and Trump loyalists are illegitimately redefining the word legitimate (and language itself)
The word “legitimate” is suddenly hot — and it’s being increasingly used to justify the unjustifiable. In the recent rare and unified front of Republicans and Democrats, rushing to sanction Russia as it begins an invasion of Ukraine, it may be convenient to stop thinking about the Republican National Committee’s statement that the Jan. 6…
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This Amsterdam neighborhood was once inhabited by Jews. None are left to celebrate its centennial
Outside 58 Weidestraat in Amsterdam’s Betondorp district, two brass stones lie set into the sidewalk. Known by the Dutch as stolpersteine, or “stumbling stones,” the square plaques are engraved with the names of Jews who moved to this neighborhood upon its creation after the First World War and were deported during the Second. Herman Richard…
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For the end of an era, the top five Jewish moments of “Arthur”
I grew up without cable, which means there was no “Powerpuff Girls,” no “Hey Arnold,” no “Lizzy McGuire.” I’ve still never seen the beloved “Rugrats” Passover special. What I did get was PBS, and with it, of course, “Arthur.” The friendly aardvark and his cast of friends were always there for me; I watched “Arthur”…
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Books A Hasidic village in New York is paving the way for a ‘white, Christian, conservative’ America
Years ago, friends of mine visited the Satmar village of Kiryas Joel, established in 1977 in upstate New York. “It was amazing,” one of them said of the streets and shops filled with men and women in traditional black clothing. “Literally everyone was Hasidic. It was like visiting Eastern Europe a century ago.” Actually, I…
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He survived a Nazi work camp to shape the world of modern film
In October 1949, Jonas Mekas arrived in New York City broke and nearly broken. The Lithuanian artist had survived a Nazi work camp and several years as a refugee, and was supposed to travel on to Chicago where a job in a bakery awaited. But the buzz of New York City energized him and so…
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