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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Tom Stoppard’s early genius and late reckoning with Jewish identity
Tom Stoppard: A Life. By Hermione Lee. Knopf, 896 pages In 1993, Tom Stoppard was in rehearsals at London’s National Theatre for “Arcadia,” his epoch-hopping and mind-bending tale of love, mathematics, poetry and landscape design which is often considered his finest play. One day, during a lunch break at the National, the celebrated British playwright…
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Who should Jews root for — Godzilla or King Kong?
Entering April, we’re set for a long-awaited showdown between household names. Folks starved for sporting spectacle studied their brackets all through March. Now, as we await the final battle, the world wonders who will come out on top: King Kong or the King of All Monsters. Oh, also, apparently there’s some college basketball going on….
The Latest
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With success of international shows, fourth season of ‘Shtisel’ seems likely
Fans of the hit drama “Shtisel” had to wait five years for the nine new episodes that dropped on Netflix this weekend. Chances are, they won’t be waiting nearly as long for the next batch. While Netflix has yet to officially announce a fourth season of the popular Israeli series, it’s all but certain they…
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The big (un)stuck boat is a big Passover metaphor
Each year, at Seders around the world, kids perform skits of the Passover story, acting as Moses begging for freedom, or the Pharaoh stubbornly refusing to budge. This year, however, the whole world acted out the Passover story. The part of Pharaoh was magnificently played by Ever Given, an enormous cargo ship that blocked the…
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How the gods of hair metal worshipped the Borscht Belt hustle
Nöthin’ But a Good Time. By Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock St. Martin’s Press, $29, 560 pages It was during the first few weeks of 1984 that I suddenly realized David Lee Roth was Jewish. I’d been a Van Halen fan for nearly five years at that point, yet had somehow never considered the possibility…
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Work-from-home veteran David Laskin on writing through the pandemic
While chatting with the author David Laskin I occasionally glanced over at my window, where a few ailing succulents liven up the gray apartment blocks on view outside. Laskin was doing the same, but he had a better excuse: His home office in Seattle, Washington looks out on the Puget Sound, with cloudy views of…
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Why the Sydney Taylor Book Awards matter
Over 100 Jewish books are published each year for kids. How can families and teachers know which ones are worth their time and money? They can turn to the Sydney Taylor Book Awards for answers. The Sydney Taylor Book Awards recognize the best picture books, middle grade and young adult books. Titles range from contemporary…
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After a second COVID shot, a taste of freedom
It’s 10 degrees in Kansas City, and snowing. It’s 17 degrees in Memphis, and snowing. Traffic is snarled all over the countries midsection and there are accidents because of icy roads and poor vision, but here in New York where we usually get the snow and ice, it is 45 degrees and partly sunny. This…
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This Passover, honor 5 women who made the Exodus possible
This Passover we can honor the tenacity of Miriam, the agency and pain of Yocheved and the commitment of Batya — women whose efforts helped lead us out of Egypt. After all, we owe them. Though they were pivotal to Moses in his efforts to shepherd our people out of bondage, these figures are given…
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Jessica Walter, a wonderful person who played ‘difficult women,’ dies at 80
Jessica Walter, the Emmy-winning actress who embodied the women’s college cliques of the 1930s, the Jewish literati of the 1960s, and had a remarkable final act as two iconic matriarchs in the 2000s, has died at the age of 80, Deadline reports. Walter was born January 31, 1941 in Brooklyn to Jewish parents and raised…
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September 13: The Jewish press today
This panel will take place on Monday, September 13 at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT Register here. In 1897 when the Forverts was founded, the need for a Jewish newspaper—a Yiddish newspaper that is—was self-evident: millions of Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants needed a reliable daily source of news in their own language. In…
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Opinion The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ טור פֿון דער אויסשטעלונג „מגילת־אסתּר אין דער רעמבראַנדט־תּקופֿה“ — אויף ייִדיש!A tour of “The Book of Esther in the Age of Rembrandt” exhibit — in Yiddish!
אין דער אויסשטעלונג געפֿינען זיך 120 מאָלערײַען פֿון דער פּורים־העלדין, געמאָלט פֿון די האָלענדישע קונסטמײַסטערס.
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Fast Forward NYC Mayor Adams pushes controversial antisemitism definition as issue dominates mayoral election
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Opinion If Trump is being compared to Hitler, who was Hitler before he was Hitler?
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Culture Aaron Lansky built a home for 1.5 million Yiddish books. Now he’s handing over the keys.
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