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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Chinese food, movies, speed-dating — 5 Jewish things to do this Christmas.
Most Christmases, many Jews have their own inviolable traditions. For my family — and quite possibly yours — that means a movie (probably one that will be nominated for Oscars and be otherwise unmemorable) and Chinese food (a welcome consolation following dreck like “Benjamin Button”). Obviously this isn’t most Christmases. Yes, I’ve heard tell of…
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Remembering Catie Lazarus, a beacon of optimism and humor
The American Jewish comedian Catie Lazarus, who died on Dec. 13 at age 44, made interviews into performance art through affectionate sibling-like jibes at guests, as if they were members of an extended mishpocheh. Her “Employee of the Month” series of chats at the Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub in downtown Manhattan featured sassy challenges to…
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21 totally on-point pop culture predictions for 2021
In 2019, save a few health and human services professionals, no one anticipated a new year gripped by a global pandemic. We were in the dark about Broadway dimming its lights and film projectors lying fallow. We couldn’t have imagined the Emmys being doled out by Hazmat-suited gofers. We might have expected the continuation of…
The Latest
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Written during the Holocaust, a song finds a second life as a social justice anthem
A simple melody, straining upward and urging defiant silence, was composed at the Klooga work camp in Estonia in the 1940s. But for decades, scholars wondered who wrote the song, or how it even sounded. Starting a year after World War II ended, the words to “Lomir shvaygn” (“Stay Silent”) appeared in collections of songs…
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How a visionary movie director predicted the dire state of culture in 2020
If “culture” means new books, new exhibitions, new music and cinema and so on, 2020 was a good year for culture. Defined almost any other way, 2020 was a terrible year for culture — as it was for pretty much everything else. As I think about 2020, what I immediately remember about the last 346…
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Reading 30 books in 30 days taught me I know nothing about espionage
For most of my post-graduate life, I’ve taken a class each semester on a subject that piqued my curiosity. Abnormal Psychology? Check. Forensic Anthropology? Check. Homicide Investigation? Jane Austen? Linen Weaving? The History of Afghanistan? Fire Science? The Communication Techniques of Plants? Sure! During Covid, my ability to take classes at my local universities has…
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‘Lighting Hanukkah Candles in Death’s Kingdom:’ A story by Elie Wiesel
Editor’s note: This story by Elie Wiesel was first published in the Forward in Yiddish on December 12, 1969. This Hanukkah, we decided it was time to give the original Yiddish new life. This new translation, including aspects of the story not included in previous English translations, is by Myra Mniewski and Chana Pollack, the…
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Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday with ‘Ode to Joy’ in Yiddish
Read this article in Yiddish. This week marks the 250th anniversary of what is believed to be the birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the most influential composers of all time, and a favorite among the Jews in Eastern Europe. Beethoven’s popular “Moonlight Sonata,” for example, is the topic of a wonderful children’s tale…
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How sweet it is to (finally) return to Zabar’s!
I slept until about 12:30 p.m. today. When I woke up, I noticed that I was not tired. I had been tired upon awakening for previous days, maybe weeks, months? But this day, I was wide-awake. As I looked around the room, I noticed that everything that came into view did so with great definition….
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Thanks to outdoor dining, it’s beginning to look a lot like Sukkot
Most years, Sukkot lasts about a week. But in this year of plague, the holiday has become a months-long event, with no sign of ending anytime soon. Secular sukkahs are all around us. They’re just going by a new name: “outdoor dining.” On daily walks through my neighborhood on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, I’ve watched…
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Why the mayor of Ramallah does it all
Musa Hadid, the middle-aged, mustachioed and overextended mayor of Ramallah is meeting with staff to discuss a Christmas tree lighting. Among the details to be ironed out: several Santas rappelling down buildings, a flash mob and zeppelins. Well, not really zeppelins. An aide suggests that this word sets up expectations that would be tough to…
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