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
-
How Simone Weil taught us to confront a world poisoned with lies
In 1943, a staff member of the Free French completed yet another policy paper for her superiors. She was under no illusion that her reports were read, much less understood, by the leader of the Free French, Charles de Gaulle. Perhaps she had learned of his response— Mais, elle est folle! —upon reading her proposal…
-
Has the IDF shifted its social media strategy?
Usually, government social media accounts stick to major announcements or instructions. But the Israeli Defense Forces are known, in times of peace, for their social media savvy, posting largely cheerful photos of young soldiers and triumphant remembrances of Israel’s victories, plus the occasional snarky meme poking fun at Hamas or Hezbollah. (There was a Valentine’s…
-
In 21st century America, where arranged child marriages remain a scourge
Kate Ryan Brewer’s “Knots: A Forced Marriage Story” is one disturbing, though important, documentary, one that grows increasingly unsettling as three articulate and intelligent young women matter-of-factly recount their belittling, exploitive, and ultimately dehumanizing experiences in forced marriages. Mercifully each has escaped and forged successful, independent lives; one has become a recognized outspoken activist on…
The Latest
-
Why is late-night TV still a no-woman zone
CNN’s current series of documentaries about late-night television rekindled memories of working on the “Tonight Show” back when it was based in New York but shooting for three weeks in “beautiful Downtown Burbank,” as Johnny Carson joked. At 23 and new to the entertainment industry, I was taken aback to have the star appear at…
-
The one story Norman Lloyd waited a lifetime to tell
There were countless memorable moments during the production of our documentary film “Who is Norman Lloyd?” Arriving at the Telluride Film Festival in a tiny prop plane for the premiere and encountering the 9000-foot altitude was merely one of the headier ones. Interviewing Karl Malden, an acting idol of mine, started out as a nervous…
-
Computers can write Torah now — should we be excited or terrified?
The premise was mine. I typed: Once the CEO of Apple approached the Kotzker Rebbe and asked him why he should continue believing in God. The Kotzker answered: Yes, I wondered. What did he answer? I pressed Enter. On the screen, it appeared: ”I am a lamp. I give light to others. But I do…
-
Meet the sociologist who left his Chabad community and wrote a pathbreaking study of ex-Hasidim
Read this article in Yiddish When Schneur Zalman Newfield studied at Chabad yeshivas, everyone thought he was a pious young man who had little knowledge of the outside world. They couldn’t have imagined that Newfield had secretly assembled a stash of contraband books – modern Yiddish literature, science and history texts and even Russian novels…
-
Film & TV An Oscar winner gives new life to a classic story of exile
When Caroline Link reread “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit,” decades after she first read it for school, she underlined a passage where Swiss boys throw gravel at the young Jewish protagonist. She couldn’t wait to direct that scene. It’s a curious, if not quite startling moment in the chapter book, a 1971 semi-autobiographical novel of…
-
Are Instagram infographics driving the narrative around the Israeli-Palestinian crisis?
Hashtag activism isn’t known for making a long-lasting impact, but it’s certainly a way to spread news and hot takes far and wide — the hotter the take, the more viral the post. While social media’s full impact on the evolving conflict in Gaza and Jerusalem is still emerging, blaring headlines and infographics have already…
-
A century after Woolf asked for a room of her own, Deborah Levy wants the whole house
“Real Estate,” Deborah Levy informs us in her memoir by that name, is not a gender-neutral term. The word “real” derives from the word Latin “rex,” or “king;” in Spanish, “real” still carries that meaning, because monarchs once owned all the land in their domains. Today, the phrase denotes residential property, yet its etymology nods…
-
Norman Lloyd, who acted for Hitchcock, Welles, Chaplin & ‘St. Elsewhere’ dies at 106
The American Jewish actor, director and producer Norman Nathan Lloyd, who died May 10 at age 106, proved over a long career how in show business, it’s who you know as well as what you know that counts. In his 1990 memoir “Stages,” Lloyd explained how he was born in Jersey City to Conservative Jewish…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News A pioneering Reform synagogue makes way for a booming Iranian Jewish community
- 2
Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
- 3
Opinion Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it.
- 4
Film & TV Remembering Siskel and Ebert’s great debate: Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish ווידעאָ: אַ שעפֿערישער מיטל צו באַלעבן די ייִדישע שפּראַך אין קלאַסצימערVIDEO: A creative way to make Yiddish come alive in the classroom
לעסלי טורנער האָט אָנגעשריבן און אויפֿגעפֿירט אַ ליאַלקע־שפּיל אין איר ייִדיש־קלאַס בײַם טאָראָנטאָ־אוניווערסיטעט
-
News These states want to ban the term ‘West Bank’ and replace it with ‘Judea and Samaria’
-
News New York City’s top Jewish officials urge Mamdani to recognize Israel’s centrality to Jewish identity
-
Fast Forward A lost film by Israeli B-movie director Sam Firstenberg gets a new life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
