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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To understand André Aciman, try reading Thucydides
If this interview aired on television, André Aciman would have earned himself a perfect score on Room Rater. The novelist, memoirist, essayist and scholar greeted me from the Upper West Side study where he spends most of his time. It’s the kind of home office about which most of us only fantasize: an Oriental-carpeted study…
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March 10: Vote 2021 – A Mayoral Candidate Forum Hosted by the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan and The Forward
This talk will take place on Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT. Click here to register. NYC voters will be electing a new mayor in 2021. We are excited to partner with the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan for a conversation with leading candidates that will help you make an informed…
The Latest
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How my Uncle Myer baked JFK’s birthday cake
Editor’s note: We have republished this story, originally published in 2019, for Presidents Day. During the early 1960’s my family and I would take two long train rides from our three-flight walk up in the East New York Section of Brooklyn to our Uncle Myer Keizerstein’s’s house in West Hartford, Connecticut. Uncle Myer would pick…
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The Forward was a socialist mainstay — until it endorsed FDR. What changed?
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2020 as the fifth installment of a special series exploring the Forward’s election coverage throughout its 123-year history. We’ve republished it for Presidents Day; find earlier installments of the newsletter here. “Nothing in this campaign happened to change my mind about there being no difference between the…
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What Donald Trump’s acquittal teaches us about empathy and compassion
The vote that ended Saturday’s second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump will have, at least in the short term, clear political consequences for the country. What might seem less clear, though, but no less important, are the philosophical consequences. By their failure to convict their party’s leader, 43 Republican senators have just reminded…
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Is everything bagel ice cream bad for the Jews?
It was already dark when I laced up my boots and trudged over to Union Square. I trod carefully, and not just because of the icy sidewalks. Hanging from my shoulder in a reusable shopping bag was precious cargo: Four pints of ice cream more artisanal than any I’d ever tasted, each of which cost…
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WATCH NOW March 23: ChaiFlicks and the Forward present an exclusive talk on “Streit’s” documentary
Watch the recording here. The Forward is excited to partner with ChaiFlicks, a streaming service dubbed the ‘Jewish Netflix’, for an exclusive talk on the documentary “Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream.” Watch Forward culture reporter, PJ Grisar and Forward staff writer, Irene Katz Connelly as they co-moderate a conversation with filmmaker, Michael Levine and…
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In his impeachment defense, David Schoen picked a really weird hill to die on
David Schoen’s faith, from his phantom yarmulke to his Shabbat observance, has played no small role in Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial. And yet, it was his take on another religion that raised eyebrows on Friday. Observers think he picked a super strange hill to die on. While Schoen eschewed his kippah in a public…
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WATCH NOW March 22: Four elections in two years: Is Israel’s democracy in crisis or stronger than ever?
Watch the recording here. Why can’t Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a stable coalition together? Where are the viable alternatives? How has the coronavirus pandemic changed the political dynamics? As Israelis head back to the polls, our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren hosts a lively discussion with the American-Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi, a senior fellow at…
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Trump’s impeachment lawyers are at war with language itself
The image of a Capitol custodial worker who had to wipe feces and blood off the walls in the aftermath of the riot was a visceral and unforgettable part of today’s impeachment proceedings, and it wiped away any notion that former President Trump’s rhetoric and the damage it caused was merely metaphorical. “I felt bad,”…
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In translating Yiddish letters, an entire heartbreaking history comes back to life
For many years these letters were quietly lying dormant. First they were in my parent’s three-story walk up in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Their bedroom faced the street and gave proper homage to “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” — a giant magnolia tree in front of their window, heralded all the seasons. Wafting through the air…
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