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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From ‘Shtisel’ to ‘Tiger King,’ the secret TV bingeing pleasures of America’s Jewish clergy
We look to spiritual leaders to guide us through challenging moments and inspire us, but where do they turn to for their own source of inspiration? Streaming services. “This past year has been hard in new ways, and when you live at your job and your job is often to help other people make it…
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May 13: Israeli author Noa Tishby discusses her new book
This talk will take place on Thursday, May 13 at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT Watch on Facebook Live here. Join Israeli author and activist Noa Tishby in conversation with Forward National Editor Rob Eshman about her new book, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth. A top Israeli…
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May 16: Tikkun Leil Shavuot: Jodi Rudoren joins a discussion on NYC’s 2021 election
This talk will take place on Sunday, May 16 at 9:30 p.m. ET / 6:30 p.m. PT. Click here to register. NYC’s historic 2021 election is fast approaching. With the introduction of ranked choice voting, nearly every city office in play, and hundreds of candidates on the ballot, the June primary has the potential to…
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May 20: Activism, Athletics & Advice: Immigrant Newspapers in NYC
This talk will take place on Thursday, May 20 at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT. Click here to register. Nearly 200 languages are spoken by New York City’s diverse citizens. They read in their own language, too – 95 ethnic and foreign-language newspapers circulate every day in the city. Printing news from the…
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For this survivor and member of the French Resistance, the scars remain
“Colette,” Anthony Giacchino’s extraordinary Oscar-nominated short documentary, is at once simple, complex, and nuanced. It tells the story of Colette Marin-Catherine, an elegant, stoic 90-year-old woman, member of a French Resistance family, who lost her older brother Jean Pierre in the Nordhausen slave-labor camp, circa 1945. He was 17 or 18 at the time, and…
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In the heart of whiskey country, this rabbi puts the bourbon into suburban
Chaim Litvin's casks are 115 proof, which, as Litvin points out, is gematria for “Chazak” (strength)
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How Jewish songwriters wrote the love theme for Philip and Elizabeth
The Kennedys, thanks to Lerner and Loewe, will forever be associated with the English setting of Camelot. Their royal British counterparts chose “Oklahoma!” for their lifelong love theme. Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, who died April 9 at the age of 99, had a special affinity for the musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein,…
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Meet the real-life artist behind the paintings in ‘Shtisel’
Akiva Shtisel, the protagonist of the eponymous series, is a genius artist, and his gorgeous paintings lie at the heart of the show about Haredi life. In the most recent season, his paintings of his deceased wife hold much of the emotional weight of the show, symbolizing Akiva’s grief and his struggle to develop a…
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At the Jewish Museum, the midcentury feels very, very modern
I arrived at “Modern Look,” the Jewish Museum’s newest exhibit, ready for what it promised: a bird’s-eye view of midcentury magazine photography. But I was preoccupied, as I have been for weeks, with a very different media moment. The recent documentary “Framing Britney Spears,” which showed how exploitative coverage eroded the singer’s mental health, has…
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Documentarian Ric Burns on why there will never be another Oliver Sacks
Writer’s note: Ric Burns’ “Oliver Sacks: His Own Life” premieres on television April 9 as part of PBS’ “American Masters” series. Republished below is an interview with Burns, originally published Sept. 23, 2020. In 2015, shortly before he died at the age of 82, Oliver Sacks was eating from a Tupperware container of green Jell-O,…
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Just how Jewish were ‘The Arabian Nights?’
How many of the “1001 Nights” were Jewish ones? Last month marked the bicentenary of the birth of Richard F. Burton, the Victorian translator of “The Arabian Nights,” or “1001 Nights,” the medieval compendium of tales in Arabic about the storyteller Scheherazade, Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sindbad. The stories date back over centuries across a…
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