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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Why you never really saw the Velvet Underground — even if you think you did
I doubt I’m the only one who secretly loves it when a movie begins with a seizure warning. Fine, maybe I am, but hear me out. Most movies lack a single striking image. Visually overwhelming cinema, the kind you feel in your whole body and not just your head, is a rare thing. So when…
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Books ‘A hypocrite’: Israelis in publishing say Sally Rooney is turning her back on Hebrew readers
Like many Israelis, Shelley Goldman, a retired book and newspaper editor from Tel Aviv, was shocked when Irish author Sally Rooney said she will not sell the Hebrew-language rights to her latest book to a publishing house that doesn’t abide by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement’s guidelines. Rooney said in a statement Tuesday that…
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Books ‘What she’s doing is anti-translation.’ Why Israeli translators are upset about Rooney’s boycott.
Sally Rooney’s decision to refuse the translation rights of her latest novel to “Israeli-based” publishers has implications not just for BDS, but for the greater dialogue across languages. While Rooney clarified her position to state that she is not boycotting Hebrew, the prospect of a widely-available Hebrew translation not published in Israel seems unlikely. In…
The Latest
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The Sally Rooney boycott brouhaha is right out of a Sally Rooney novel
By now you’ve heard: Sally Rooney, the millennial Irish author whose three novels have launched a thousand thinkpieces, is refusing to let an Israeli publishing house translate and distribute her latest book, “Beautiful World, Where Are You.” That choice prompted the literary brouhaha of the week, especially after Rooney, pressed on her decision, released a…
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This woman thought a Holocaust diet was a good idea
It can be almost physically painful to look at photos of concentration camp prisoners, so emaciated that you can see the shapes of their skulls, their kneecaps, their sternums in sharp relief. Those photos are one of the starkest, most impactful ways of driving home the horrors of the Holocaust. Unless you’re Gwen Shamblin, a…
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Does Sarah Silverman actually have a point about ‘Jewface?’
On a recent podcast, the comedian Sarah Silverman spoke at length about the trend of casting non-Jewish actors in major Jewish roles. Despite Silverman’s professional track record of wild japes, she clearly meant every word of it. Last November, Silverman briefly introduced the same subject on the “Howard Stern Show.” This time, she cited specific…
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He read over 27,000 comics — and now he knows everything about the Marvel universe
While Marvel comics are famous for their hyperbole, it’s no exaggeration to refer to them collectively as the “Biggest Story Ever Told.” It’s possible only one man knows the entire tale so far. With over half a million pages over innumerable lines and iterations, the Marvel canon is, per Eisner Award-winning writer Douglas Wolk, “the…
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At the Cloisters, an oddly-shaped window reveals hints of Jewish life in medieval Spain
Sometime in the 900s, a Spanish monk named Maius painted his version of Jerusalem. Rendered on vellum in precise detail and luminous color, the painting tells a very Christian story, imagining the harmonious city that might emerge after the Day of Judgment. But with its horseshoe arches, distinctive crenellations and tall flying buttresses, this ideal…
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How a Brooklyn music teacher, the Lone Ranger and two temples changed my life
When did I discover that I could sing, that I could harmonize? Was it a special gift? I remember singing in elementary school. I tried out for the role of Nanki-Poo in “The Mikado” and wound up in the chorus. And, in “I Hear America Singing.” I played the lead role — Walt Whitman. Mrs….
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February 7: Jonathan Greenblatt in conversation with Jodi Rudoren
This discussion will take place on Monday, February 7 at 7 p.m. ET./ 4 p.m. PT. Register here. As CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jonathan Greenblatt has made it his mission to demonstrate how antisemitism, racism, and other insidious forms of intolerance can destroy a society, taking root as quiet prejudices but mutating over…
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In Tammy Faye Starlite’s Israeli chanteuse, a remembrance of Judaism — and pop culture — past
It’s unclear what circumstances brought Tamar, the mononymous Israeli chanteuse, to the dining room of Pangea in the East Village this October, but it is her feeling that the venue is quite lucky to have her. “Normally I play great concert halls,” Tamar told the crowd Thursday, “Like Leonard’s of Great Neck.” Decked out with…
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