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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He drew Leonard Cohen’s life, death and underwear
What did Leonard Cohen see at the moment of his death? No one can say for sure. But it’s possible he was thinking about the time he found his childhood dog dead beneath a neighbor’s porch. Or his cameo on “Miami Vice.” Or his final recording session with his son, Adam. There was a lot…
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With ‘All Too Well,’ Taylor Swift stakes her claim to a time-honored Jewish tradition
In case you haven’t been paying attention to the latest celebrity gossip, pop star Taylor Swift is once again the talk of the town – this time around for re-recording her 2012 kiss-off song “All Too Well”; she has made no secret of the fact that the song was aimed at actor Jake Gyllenhaal, whom…
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How Tony Kushner changed ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Change’ itself
The Broadway musical “Caroline, or Change” is set in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1963, in the early years of the civil rights movement, in the home of a Jewish family with an 8-year-old son, Noah and a Black maid, Caroline Thibodeaux. The Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, who wrote the musical’s book…
The Latest
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In the slums of Tel Aviv, a disturbing tale of Beauty meeting the Beast
Though the film “Woman Alive” may be a retread of themes we’ve seen before, it is cinematically riveting — from its imagery to most seminally, its ambience, which evokes a marginalized, nihilistic world. It marks an impressive narrative debut for its director Macabit Abramson, who is best known for her documentaries and experimental aesthetic. Jerusalem-based…
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Can anyone help Kathryn Grody and Mandy Patinkin find their lost boys?
For 15 years, Kathryn Grody and Mandy Patinkin have been searching for their sons. Apparently, during an apartment-move in 2006, they lost the two boys, ages 5 and 2. Well, not the real-life boys, but a painting of them that used to hang chez Grody and Patinkin. “I noticed the frame seemed slightly warped, so…
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After a house is destroyed in a fire, a Jewish artist finds a way to preserve its spirit
Driving up the hill, there was a point where you could always catch the first glimpse of the house, the pitch of the roof and the top of this one tall tree. Whenever Windy Dougall came home to visit her family, that spot in the road was when she knew she was home. “It was…
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What does the Talmud say about Larry David spilling coffee on a Klansman’s robe?
The fact that Judaism has its own vast corpus of legal arguments is of little interest to Larry David — he’s a law unto himself. But every so often his actions give way to a question of Talmudic precedent. When, for instance, Larry accidentally spilled coffee on a Klansman’s robe on Sunday’s episode and then…
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Is ‘Charm Circle’ a Jewish ‘Grey Gardens,’ or a failed therapy session?
The first thing I did after finishing “Charm Circle” was clean my room. Named for a patch of Kew Garden Hills in Queens, NY, where red brick semidetached homes form a pseudo suburb, the documentary by Nira Burstein is as intimate — and dirty — as filmmaking gets. Burstein follows her parents, Uri and Raya,…
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Mizrahi documentary is personal and political homage to hope and resistance
Michale Boganim grew up hearing her father’s stories of migrating from Morocco to Israel, only to be blindsided by blatant discrimination in the Promised Land. One of many who journeyed from North Africa, the Middle East, and parts of the Caucasus to Israel in search of brotherhood and opportunity, Charlie Boganim responded by becoming a…
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Hey Starbucks — where are the Hanukkah seasonal lattes?
For many people, it’s not truly fall until Starbucks launches the Pumpkin Spice Latte. The same goes for Christmas season; when the coffee chain’s iconic red, white and green Christmas cups, filled with seasonal drinks like peppermint, chestnut praline or gingerbread lattes, become available — as they did last week — you know it’s time…
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Meet the greatest Jewish sportscasters of all time
On July 2, 1921, one hundred years ago, 100,000 fans elbowed their way into Boyle’s Thirty Acres in Jersey City, New Jersey to see the highly anticipated heavyweight championship fight between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier. Dempsey retained the title with a fourth-round knockout of the Frenchman. The Dempsey-Carpentier fight marked the first time fans…
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