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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The big (un)stuck boat is a big Passover metaphor
Each year, at Seders around the world, kids perform skits of the Passover story, acting as Moses begging for freedom, or the Pharaoh stubbornly refusing to budge. This year, however, the whole world acted out the Passover story. The part of Pharaoh was magnificently played by Ever Given, an enormous cargo ship that blocked the…
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How the gods of hair metal worshipped the Borscht Belt hustle
Nöthin’ But a Good Time. By Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock St. Martin’s Press, $29, 560 pages It was during the first few weeks of 1984 that I suddenly realized David Lee Roth was Jewish. I’d been a Van Halen fan for nearly five years at that point, yet had somehow never considered the possibility…
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Work-from-home veteran David Laskin on writing through the pandemic
While chatting with the author David Laskin I occasionally glanced over at my window, where a few ailing succulents liven up the gray apartment blocks on view outside. Laskin was doing the same, but he had a better excuse: His home office in Seattle, Washington looks out on the Puget Sound, with cloudy views of…
The Latest
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Why the Sydney Taylor Book Awards matter
Over 100 Jewish books are published each year for kids. How can families and teachers know which ones are worth their time and money? They can turn to the Sydney Taylor Book Awards for answers. The Sydney Taylor Book Awards recognize the best picture books, middle grade and young adult books. Titles range from contemporary…
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After a second COVID shot, a taste of freedom
It’s 10 degrees in Kansas City, and snowing. It’s 17 degrees in Memphis, and snowing. Traffic is snarled all over the countries midsection and there are accidents because of icy roads and poor vision, but here in New York where we usually get the snow and ice, it is 45 degrees and partly sunny. This…
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This Passover, honor 5 women who made the Exodus possible
This Passover we can honor the tenacity of Miriam, the agency and pain of Yocheved and the commitment of Batya — women whose efforts helped lead us out of Egypt. After all, we owe them. Though they were pivotal to Moses in his efforts to shepherd our people out of bondage, these figures are given…
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Jessica Walter, a wonderful person who played ‘difficult women,’ dies at 80
Jessica Walter, the Emmy-winning actress who embodied the women’s college cliques of the 1930s, the Jewish literati of the 1960s, and had a remarkable final act as two iconic matriarchs in the 2000s, has died at the age of 80, Deadline reports. Walter was born January 31, 1941 in Brooklyn to Jewish parents and raised…
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September 13: The Jewish press today
This panel will take place on Monday, September 13 at 3 p.m. ET / 12 p.m. PT Register here. In 1897 when the Forverts was founded, the need for a Jewish newspaper—a Yiddish newspaper that is—was self-evident: millions of Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrants needed a reliable daily source of news in their own language. In…
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Shrimp in your Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Your cereal might still be kosher
Cinnamon sugar-crusted shrimp sounds like a questionable appetizer at a haute-cuisine restaurant — you know, the same kind of food trend that gave us everything bagel ice cream. Instead, the shellfish in question came out of a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, into the bowl of Twitter user and comedian Jensen Karp, whose tweet…
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Note to Georgia politicians: Sunday isn’t the Sabbath
Georgia Republicans recently passed a bill to eliminate early voting on Sunday. “I’d like one of the Republican members on this committee to give us a plain sense justification for that restriction,” demanded Sen. Chuck Schumer in a meeting of the Senate Rules and Administration committee; voting remains legal Monday-Saturday. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, of Mississippi,…
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Up for sale: Letters from Lenny Bruce and Charles Manson, a Disneyland orgy and the story of a generation
The political upheaval of the 1960s is certainly having a moment in Hollywood. Among the films up for the best picture Oscar are “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” And, of course, Best Supporting Actor nominations went to Daniel Kaluuya for his portrayal of the murdered Black Panther Fred…
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