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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Barbra Streisand’s brand-new duet with Bob Dylan is a whole lot different than you might think
Though Dylan and Streisand's voices may seem ill-suited to each other, the two complement each other gorgeously on 'The Very Thought of You'
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Why Leonard Cohen’s final album features the cantor from his home synagogue
In January 2018, after the late Leonard Cohen received his last, but not final, Grammy nomination, a representative from his hometown attended the ceremony: The cantor from the synagogue he grew up in. He wasn’t just there as an observer — he was a contributor. “My greatest sources of pride is that the choir and…
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The dangerous hate movement we need to talk about
Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pickup Artists; The Truth About Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All By Laura Bates Sourcebooks ; $28.99 ; 352pp There’s an ideology that’s spreading via the internet, leading to terrorist attacks in America. It existed before the internet of course, but the past decade has seen…
The Latest
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Happy birthday to Barbie, an intermittently Jewish icon
Rumors of Barbie’s death were greatly exaggerated. On March 8, 2014, the day before the doll’s 55th birthday, a [Daily Beast article](The Death of Barbie (thedailybeast.com) opined that the doll’s days were numbered due to declining sales. The Forward responded with mixed feelings for the Mattel toy, who, befitting her origins, meant a lot to…
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The 10 essential films of the Yiddish renaissance
In 1950, the great actor, producer and Yiddish theater impresario Maurice Schwartz closed down his Yiddish Art Theater in New York. Demand for Yiddish theater had waned. That same year, what were believed to be the last Yiddish language feature movies to be made were released. They were Josef Berne’s “Catskill Honeymoon” and Joseph Seiden’s…
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WATCH NOW: May 11: Yiddish Folk Song: The Next Generation
Watch the recording here. Boston breeds great Yiddish folk singers – after all, New England Conservatory is the only music school in the US where students can take a class on performing Yiddish folk music! Join a new generation of Boston-based Yiddish singers keeping the tradition alive and fresh – Adah Hetko, Kirsten Lamb, Eden…
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A tale of horrors joins a Yiddish film renaissance
It’s been a long time coming — a horror film set in a Hasidic section of Brooklyn, where much of the dialogue is in Yiddish. Films that deal with the supernatural are certainly no stranger to Jewish lore and culture. Since the advent of cinema, there have been several films made about dybbuks, demons and…
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The indescribable pleasures of grandfatherhood
Her features were feminine to a fault and of perfect symmetry. Short, dark brown hair, with kind of a Mohawk frill atop, delicate fingers, straight as an arrow, and the cutest curly tongue I had ever seen. What amazed me most was that she was in the room at all when I arrived and that…
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WATCH NOW: April 22: Yiddish on Duolingo: How the long-awaited course came to be
Watch the recording here. Earlier this month, Duolingo added Yiddish to its list of languages, and thousands have already signed up. Meet the team of Yiddish mavens who worked for five years bringing the mameloshn to the popular language learning app. Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter will speak to Myra Awodey, Duolingo’s Lead Community Specialist; Meena…
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April 11: A Conversation with Mohammed Darawshe
This talk will take place on Sunday, April 11 at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT Click here to register. The Forward is excited to partner with Temple Ner Tamid of Bloomfield, NJ. Mohammad Darawshe is a citizen of Israel whose family has lived in the town of Iksal, just outside of Nazareth, for…
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Bernie, please be my matchmaker
On Friday morning, Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment to raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour. In the midst of his impassioned speech, he slid in this line: “You got young people who want to go to school, want to socialize, want to date, want to do things that young people do. And they…
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Music Is Drake off to get some Jesus in his life?
In his newly-released EP, Drake is once more considering God’s plan for him. Judging by one song’s contemplation of Jesus, he may be entering a 1980s Dylan phase. On the track “Wants and Needs,” the artist formerly known as Aubrey Graham reflects on his success, which his mother, Sandi (née Sher) suggests is “Godsent.” That…
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