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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Casting the inevitable Kushner family movie
Now that Donald Trump has pardoned Charles Kushner, many are just now hearing for the first time of the classic story of a real estate magnate who hired a sex worker to sleep with his brother-in-law and sent a tape of their tryst to his sister on the days before her son’s engagement party to…
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Insider insights into ‘Shtisel’ season 3
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in New York City recently presented the world premiere of the first episode of “Shtisel” Season 3, which launched in Israel on Dec. 20 and is coming to Netflix in spring 2021. The virtual advance screening was preceded by a live panel discussion with the series’ stars—Michael Aloni (Akiva), Doval’e…
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Need a movie to watch on Christmas? These are our favorites.
Members of the Tribe, we have faced great challenges this year, taking Seders and the high holidays virtual and mastering socially distant minyanim. Through shifting CDC policy and mixed messaging from lawmakers, we have tried to keep ourselves safe while honoring our culture. Now, we must once more persevere despite our uncertain world. Yes: We…
The Latest
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Music How Herb Alpert made the most underrated Jewish Christmas album of all time
This holiday season inevitably brings to mind all the classic Christmas songs that have been written by Jews. Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” is the big blini, of course, having been covered more than 500 times since Bing Crosby first sang it on his NBC Radio show on Christmas Day 1941. But there are over a…
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With huckster Trump in charge, the carnival goes on — and on and on
One of the few things Fox News and the Guardian newspaper agree upon is Donald Trump’s resemblance to a carnival huckster. This indelibly American image brings to mind Harold Hill, the fast-talking trickster who steals the show — and very nearly the savings of a small Iowa town — in “The Music Man.” Yet, for…
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Meet the Orthodox Jewish Santa who trains America’s Christmas performers
Is it possible to be both a full time Santa and a full time Jew? Rick Rosenthal says yes
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Christmas was my favorite holiday — until I got too Jewish
When I was a child, Christmas was my favorite holiday. My dad isn’t Jewish, but that’s not even why we celebrated Christmas; my Jewish mom grew up celebrating too. Her mother had been jealous of how much fun it seemed, so she insisted on having trees and stockings and carols. When I was growing up,…
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On their first Noel at home, more interfaith families are trying out trees and stockings
Judging by the current contents of her apartment, Lauren Schreiber Sasaki is a woman who loves nothing more than celebrating Christmas at home. On the mantel, a “Merry Christmas” garland hangs beneath a large collection of menorahs. An advent calendar shares a wall with several Magen David ornaments. Atop the coffee table stands the pièce…
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These were the 20 best pop culture moments of 2020
During the thousands of days of 2020, the way we consume pop culture has radically changed. Case in point: This list begins in January with an Oscars speech that my boyfriend and I, who had just moved to Brooklyn, watched from a bar we’d already designated as our “regular place.” We exhaled aerosols everywhere. We…
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Once enemies, Anthony Fauci and Larry Kramer developed a surprising bromance
One way to celebrate the 80th birthday on Dec. 24 of Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would be to re-examine his complex friendship with the American Jewish author and AIDS activist Larry Kramer. When Kramer died in May of this year at age 84, Fauci recounted in…
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I was an outsider at Christmas — until I found ‘The Nutcracker’
Until I discovered “The Nutcracker,” December was the season of fruitlessly trying to explain Hanukkah to my mostly non-Jewish friends. I never wished to be anything but Jewish, but I secretly longed to experience the kind of Christmas cheer I read about in books. I wanted a big family gathering, with a tree and mistletoe…
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