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
-
Can Sacha Baron Cohen be Borat and still tell the truth?
For a while now, Sacha Baron Cohen has had an issue with juggling multiple personas. On the one hand, as Borat, Bruno and his coterie of characters on “Who is America,” he is a cartoonish sounding board for America’s worst qualities. On the other, he is an increasingly serious out-of-character activist, a full-throated opponent of…
-
The Jewish jokes from ‘Friends’ have aged poorly — so has the rest of the show
I grew up in one of those households without cable, a PBS-only child. “Friends” was a show I dreamed of being old enough to be allowed to watch; it felt like the most hip, adult network sitcom. In my teens, I watched it all on DVDs ordered one by one from Netflix, if you remember…
-
What if we could resolve generational trauma through…a Holocaust video game?
When I first heard about a new documentary, “Tacheles,” which follows a group of Germans designing a video game about the Holocaust, in which “Jews can defend themselves and Nazis can act humanely,” I thought it sounded like a recipe for disaster. At best, it seemed like a poorly thought-through attempt at catharsis; at worst,…
The Latest
-
The secret Jewish history of ‘The Goon Show’
May 28 marks the 70th anniversary of the influential British radio comedy program “The Goon Show,” which inspired fans from the Monty Python group to John Lennon. The Jewish content of The Goons, comprising comedians Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers as well as the Welsh singer Harry Secombe, is usually overlooked amid the show’s comedic…
-
Music How Jewish is Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah?’
A Forward investigation in 9 verses
-
At 80, is Bob Dylan still the voice of his generation?
Because I have a somewhat morbid outlook on life combined with an almost fanatical devotion toward being prepared — a vestige of my year or so in the ranks of the Boy Scouts? — I have been toying with the idea of writing Bob Dylan’s obituary in advance of his actual death for at least…
-
For Albert Camus, events in Gaza would have seemed all too familiar
The situation was impossibly precarious and a solution seemed practically impossible. Two communities, one composed of indigenous Arabs and the other of mostly European immigrants, laid claim to the same swathe of arid hinterland and Mediterranean coastline. Fragile coexistence had given way to fratricidal conflict; one side mobilized technological advantages and the other employed terrorist…
-
Don’t reduce Louise Bourgeois’s art to an Oedipus complex
Louise Bourgeois did not trust words; this is what numerous articles and essays about the artist will tell you. That fact is also mentioned at “Louise Bourgeois: Freud’s Daughter,” a new exhibit at the Jewish Museum, which shows more than 50 of the French-born artist’s works alongside pages and pages of musings and notes she…
-
Have social media giants been censoring posts about Israel and Gaza?
Almost as fast as social media posts about Israel and Gaza began multiplying, so too did complaints of censorship from both sides. Posts were identified as hate speech and taken down; influencers insisted that they had been shadow-banned — a term for when a user’s posts are left up but the algorithm does not show…
-
When a family is separated by 200 meters — and the occupation
This is the nightly ritual that lies at the heart of “200 Meters.” Mustafa, the film’s fatherly protagonist, steps onto his balcony and flicks the light switch on and off. From their bedroom in a nearby apartment building, his three young children can see the lights flashing, and they eagerly reply in kind. These two…
-
Charles Grodin, beloved grump and talk show guest from hell, dies at 86
The 'Beethoven' and 'Midnight Run' star was a man of many talents
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Sports This year’s biggest World Cup upset came from its most ‘Jew-ish’ team
- 2
News Who is Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli politician who could dethrone Netanyahu?
- 3
Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
- 4
News New Jewish-Arab political party debuts in Israel, aiming to topple 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