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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They remember their last big vaccine — for polio
My father isn’t one to proffer childhood anecdotes, but there is one story he likes to tell: it’s about his polio vaccine. He was in elementary school when the Sabin vaccine (named for Alfred Sabin, the Jewish scientist who developed it) became available for general use. He lived in a small Connecticut town where crowds…
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Christopher Plummer — admirer of Jewish culture, theater and cuisine
Last year, America was reminded of the anti-Nazi onscreen activism of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, who died on Feb. 5 at age 91, after the previous occupant of the White House’s State of the Union address. After that event, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of the speech in a filmed image which…
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What this week’s Torah portion says about Marjorie Taylor Greene
Members of Congress who took the unprecedented step this week of removing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from committees in the House of Representatives also took a page from the Bible — which specifically counsels distancing oneself from lies. “From a lying word stay far away, and the guiltless and innocent do not kill, for I…
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Read Trump’s letter of resignation from the Manischewitz Frequent Buyers Circle
On Friday, former President Donald Trump, fresh from his preemptive resignation from SAG-AFTRA, did an end run on a campaign to oust him from the Manischewitz Frequent Buyers Circle by sending a letter of withdrawal — a bold move, given that his punch card was one purchase away from a free box of matzo. The…
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Is Serbia using a Holocaust film as nationalist propaganda?
'Dara of Jasenovac' is the first feature-length narrative about the death camp - but is it trying to score political points?
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The trippy, far-out artist who refused to support the Nazis
In Robin Lutz’s intriguing (yet in the end incomplete) documentary, “M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity,” the iconic Dutch graphic artist (1898-1972), emerges as a complex and entertaining amalgam. He is an intellectual, a curmudgeon, and a tormented artist twisted this way and that over what he perceives to be his own inadequacies. Lutz evokes Escher’s…
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King Solomon wore a unique purple; now we know what that looked like
“Royal purple” is a phrase for a reason — the color was hard to produce in an era when most dyes came from vegetables. The shade, referred to as argaman or tekhelet in Hebrew, is a particularly vibrant hue mentioned only a few times in the Bible, when describing drapings for kings, a carriage for…
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An ode to Ellis Island, whose dingy reality contradicted its majestic dreams
Reading Georges Perec’s prose poem“Ellis Island” (reissued this month in a slim, Statue-of-Liberty green edition courtesy of New Directions), I felt inspired to coin a word. A wee bit precious of me, I’ll admit — but then, as I may have mentioned already, I was reading a book by Georges Perec. This is the writer…
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This 25-year-old Ashkenazi-British-Sudanese comedian is blowing up on TikTok
Lukas Arnold talks about his life all the time; it’s central to the comedy that has earned him 1.1 million followers on TikTok. And yet, the more he talks about himself, the more of an enigma he becomes. The 25-year-old comedian and voice actor’s dad is Ashkenazi, with ancestry in Poland. His mom is half…
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WATCH NOW: March 10: How to Die Young at a Very Old Age
Watch here. Why do some people age slowly and live healthier lives? What are the secrets to their longevity? Join a fascinating discussion with the team who are identifying the longevity gene in Ashkenazi Jews as they address questions on aging and what it means to be healthy and live long. Rob Eshman, National Editor…
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In Jerusalem, where lives intersect thrillingly — and sometimes violently
City of a Thousand Gates By Rebecca Sacks Harper, 384 pages, $27.99 As her epigraph suggests, Rebecca Sacks’ lovely debut novel, “City of a Thousand Gates,” concerns the impact of “the high drama of history” on individual lives. The phrase is drawn from Robert Musil’s philosophical novel, “The Man Without Qualities.” Here the lives are…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Culture In ‘Guns & Moses,’ an Orthodox rabbi packs heat — no questions asked
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Opinion How I got AI to create fake Nazi memos — and what that means for the future of antisemitism
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Fast Forward How the Jewish commandment to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ could help a woman challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban in court
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: יוטוב־פּערזענלעכקייט רעדט אויף ייִדיש וועגן אַ משפּחה־טראַגעדיעVIDEO: Youtube personality speaks in Yiddish about a tragedy in the family
מאַטי מענדלאָוויטשעס ברודער, וואָס האָט יאָרן לאַנג געליטן פֿון דעפּרעסיע, האָט הײַיאָר זיך גענומען דאָס לעבן. .
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