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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Can Shabbat be #self-care? For me, the answer was yes — maybe
Sometimes, when I quit Slack and stow away my laptop on a Friday afternoon, I go on Instagram and scroll through pictures of challah. Plain challah, rainbow challah, challah embellished with candied flowers. Hefty, round challah and etiolated mini challahs scattered artfully across a pristine baking sheet. Challah posed next to minimalist Shabbat candlesticks or…
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The secret Jewish history of birdwatching
Like so many things, birdwatching can be traced back to the Bible, specifically to the story of Noah and the Flood. You probably recall that when the floodwaters receded and Noah’s ark found itself grounded atop Mount Ararat, Noah opened a window in the ark and sent out a dove to run reconnaissance for him,…
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Was Ethel Rosenberg really a tragic figure?
The sad case of Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg exemplifies the claim that on occasion, there are no more merciless judges of Jews than their coreligionists. Rosenberg, who with her husband Julius was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and executed by the U.S. federal government in 1953 at Sing Sing prison in Ossining, New York,…
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From the time of Torah to TikToks, 10 of Judaism’s best dads
“Fiddler on the Roof” is unequivocal: It is the father’s lot to, day and night, scramble for a living, feed a wife and children, say his daily prayers and have the final word at home. Well, things have changed for most of us since shtetl days — a net positive — but Papas are still…
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Behind a viral slap, a disturbing antisemitic history
It was the face slap that launched a thousand video clips. During a visit last week to the southeastern French town of Tain-l’Hermitage, President Emmanuel Macron waded into a bain de foule or a “crowd bath” — the tradition of politicians walking the streets, greeting voters and shaking their hands. Rather than taking Macron’s hand,…
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The secret Jewish history of Rita Moreno (who just might be a descendant of very secret Jews)
At age 89, Rita Moreno is still going strong, with a role in the upcoming remake of “West Side Story” by Steven Spielberg (she starred as Anita in the original film) and a leading role in the rebooted TV sitcom “One Day at a Time,” which was an ongoing venture until filming was shut down…
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What does the Museum of Modern Art have to do with Palestinian oppression?
Of all the museums to criticize for its ties to imperialism, the Museum of Modern Art seems like a strange one. Why not the Metropolitan Museum, or the British Museum, institutions that exhibit older art, often pilfered by conquering Europeans? But the Strike MoMA movement is about a lot more than, well, striking MoMA. The…
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How a former Anglican monk’s story inspired a gay French-Jewish romance
British writer Aiden Chambers, whose 1982 young adult novel, “Dance on my Grave,” inspired the movie “Summer of ’85,” says he couldn’t be more delighted with the results. Specifically, that Francois Ozon, a French filmmaker, adapted and directed the gay love story. Hollywood would have sentimentalize it while a British director might have turned it…
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Liberated at Buchenwald, Max Temkin became a lifelong enemy of hate
Holocaust survivor, Max Temkin, most recently of Setauket, New York, was part of a delegation that brought back soil from concentration camps to place under the Eternal Flame of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. He died May 22, several weeks after suffering a stroke on his 99th birthday, March 27. Max was born in…
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A requiem for the backyard minyan
The outdoor minyan was a symbol of Jewish resourcefulness and resilience
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‘We Cannot Be Silent’ — Jewish workers in devastated countries face unusual dangers and difficult choices
In October 2018, Joel R. Charny was in northeast Syria. As president of the Norwegian Refugee Council USA, Charny was evaluating water, shelter and education programs for Syrians forced from their homes. In its seventh year of civil war, Syria was considered the most dangerous country on earth by the Institute of Economics and Peace….
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