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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Thanksgiving in the time of COVID: How we’re safely celebrating and showing gratitude
It’s going to be a Thanksgiving like none other. The United States is in the grips of the worst spike in the COVID-19 pandemic to date, imbuing every decision around the holiday with new concerns — especially as public health experts have warned that Thanksgiving gatherings will only lead to an even more dramatic uptick…
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Your Jewish guide to the Grammy nominations
Music is not like baseball. With the latter, you choose a favorite team and stick with it through its ups and downs over the years. (Believe me, as a lifelong, beleaguered fan of the New York Met, I know of what I speak.) With the former, however, if the diverse and all-encompassing Grammy Award nominations…
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This Thanksgiving, I will remember not to take my family for granted
When I was growing up, my mother always encouraged me to form strong connections with my cousins. “Blood is thicker than water,” she said. She was a second generation Jewish-American. She grew up in Chicago’s Albany Park, which was a vibrant Jewish immigrant neighborhood at the time. Her Jewish-Persian father had one sister and two…
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How America’s first Jew gave the turkey its name
Author’s Note: This article, detailing the mysterious life of America’s first Jew, was originally published in 2018. Among the interesting trivia about Luis de Torres’ journey from Spain is his purported naming of the North American turkey, a theory that, combined with his pilgrim-like voyage to escape persecution, make it appropriate Thanksgiving Day reading. For…
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Monolith discovered in Utah wilderness has strong ‘2001’ energy
It’s a mystery some cinephiles may not want solved: Who — or what — placed a towering metal monolith in the middle of Utah desert? On Nov. 18, officers for Utah’s Department of Public Safety discovered the 10 to 12-foot tall edifice, which looks like a stainless steel prototype of Stanley Kubrick’s famously cryptic monolith…
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A new box set of Yiddish films arrives – but only on Blu-Ray
Read this article in Yiddish. Today, 10 fully-restored classics of Yiddish cinema, featuring new commentary tracks and subtitles, will be available in a box set for the first time. But you may not be able to watch them. “This is coming out strictly on Blu-Ray,” said Allen Lewis Rickman, an actor and Yiddishist who wrote…
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Why Bob Dylan preferred I.B. Singer over Jack Kerouac
One Singer story 'stayed in my head for months afterward,' Dylan said.
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What Antony Blinken’s band says about how he’ll lead as Secretary of State
It is all but certain that Antony Blinken, former U.S. deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama, will be the nation’s top diplomat in the Biden administration. If nominated, he will be the third Jew to hold the post after Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. He will — we think — be the first to…
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Against all odds, Holocaust survivors retain their optimism — and their music
Directed by Tod Lending, “Saul & Ruby’s Holocaust Survivor Band” recounts the experiences of two Holocaust survivors, Saul Dreier, 91 and Ruby Sosnowicz, 87, who’ve joined forces to form a Klezmer Band that celebrates their survival — or, more to the point, how they’ve thrived despite enduring Holocaust atrocities. A testimony to optimism and resilience,…
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How Australia almost became a Jewish homeland
Growing up, I spent most of my time with my family at my grandparent’s farm in Western Australia. I didn’t know how unusual my grandfather was, with his shade house full of the roses and orchids he hybridized, with his robust singing of opera and his dry sense of humor. He was a polite, reserved…
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Jewish clergy rally in support of immigrants on hunger strike at New Jersey jail
Rabbi Avram Mlotek was washing dishes and listening to the radio when he heard that seven immigrant detainees had started a hunger strike at Bergen County Jail in Hackensack, New Jersey. “I’m from Bergen County, so that set off my antenna,” said Mlotek, who lives in Manhattan and leads BASE Hillel, a community outreach organization…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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