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
-
For the grandfather of micro-drawing, it’s truly a small world after all
The pandemic seems to have changed the world so that it now looks a lot more like the one artist Jacob El Hanani has always lived in. The 74-year-old Moroccan-born, Israeli-raised, New York-steeped “grandfather of micro-drawing,” has been tending to his intricate and painstakingly drawn canvases for over 45 years, in the same Soho loft…
-
Why the latest White House ceremony is delighting Jewish scholars and librarians
The White House’s new science adviser was sworn in Wednesday using a copy of Pirkei Avot, or Ethics of the Fathers, from the year 1492 — a pivotal moment in Jewish history and world history. The choice delighted Judaica librarians and scholars around the world. Dr. Eric Lander, the director of the White House Office…
-
The Jewish story that ‘Son of the South’ left on the cutting room floor
MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The funniest line in the true-life story behind the Spike Lee-executive produced Civil Rights movement biopic, “Son of the South,” is in Yiddish. But it didn’t make the final cut. That’s because the Jewish half of what could have been a hilarious-yet-gripping buddy film was largely written out. In real life, the…
The Latest
-
Books This nonagenarian knows more about the cellphone than you — because he invented it
After working from home for over a year, I still have no idea how Zoom backgrounds work, which means the various strangers I interview can look past me to see my ailing succulents, unopened prestige cookbooks and a childhood’s worth of participation trophies. Unlike me, a supposed “digital native,” Martin Cooper is old enough that…
-
Joe Manchin’s filibuster-sized Talmudic trolley problem — and ours
Last week, the GOP may have filibustered the future of American democracy. Senate Republicans used this parliamentary tactic to prevent the creation of an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. When the vote fell short of 60 — the threshold needed to pass the measure — the Democratic senator from West Virginia,…
-
Did Chuck Woolery just have a ‘Hitler was right’ moment?
Chuck Woolery, the arch-conservative game show host and catheter pitchman was slammed on Twitter for appearing to take an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” approach to… Hitler? In a Memorial Day post, Woolery tweeted “Critical Race theory is based on Critical theory, given to the world by Marxists from the Frankfort School [sic]…
-
From the confinement of a ‘ghetto,’ the liberation of great art
The other day, I looked up the word “ghetto” in the online Urban Dictionary, in order to get a sense of how the word is being used in the vernacular these days. While the definition provided there is problematic and poorly written, I was struck, however, by the very first sentence: “When someone is to…
-
The secret Jewish history of ‘The Love Boat’
In light of the May 29 death of actor Gavin MacLeod, celebrated for portraying Captain Merrill Stubing on ABC-TV’s “The Love Boat,” it seems like a good time to take a deeper look into the Jewish elements in the hit show, which ran from 1977 to 1986, followed by further special episodes until 1990. Executive…
-
The Tulsa massacre wasn’t a ‘race riot’ — it was a pogrom
One hundred years ago, a pogrom destroyed a community. A pogrom is, according to John Klier, who was the subject’s leading authority and author of numerous seminal studies on Russian Jews, “an outbreak of mass violence directed against a minority religious, ethnic or social group. It usually implies central instigation and control, or at minimum…
-
Books Why do we keep turning Holocaust survivor stories into self-help books?
On a recent segment of “The Today Show,” a cadre of well-coiffed hosts discussed the life of Eddie Jaku, a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor and the author of “The Happiest Man on Earth,” a memoir about his imprisonment in Auschwitz. Grainy photos of concentration camp prisoners alternated with clips from an interview with Jaku and videos…
-
The year that I’ll remember, the year my grandfather won’t
Around this time last year, I held my grandpa’s hand in the ER of a New York City hospital. Half-drawn curtains formed alcoves that revealed slivers of the patients nearby — faces, an arm. I looked from one to the other. They were alone. They seemed to be asleep. They were hooked up to machines…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Sports This year’s biggest World Cup upset came from its most ‘Jew-ish’ team
- 2
Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
- 3
Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
- 4
News Who is Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli politician who could dethrone Netanyahu?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Some of Mamdani’s Jewish allies criticize his use of ‘monsters’ to describe AIPAC
-
Fast Forward U.K. PM Starmer leaves behind mixed record on antisemitism
-
Fast Forward NY cafe deactivates account after backlash over treatment of Rep. Goldman
-
Fast Forward Alan Greenspan, longtime Fed chairman who inspired Jewish pride and antisemitic conspiracy theories, dies at 100