Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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Film & TV In ‘Tehran,’ an agent caught between Iran and Israel can’t find her way home
In an early episode of the spy thriller “Tehran,” a Mossad agent makes a house call. Yael Ashrafi (Liraz Charhi), the handler of hacker and series protagonist Tamar Rabinyan, pays a visit to her Mr. Rabinyan. She wants to know if Tamar might still have family in Iran and if, after ditching a reckless contact…
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For America, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a new kind of Jew
In 1852, the Kentucky politician Henry Clay became the first person to lie in state in the United States Capitol Rotunda. A skilled liaison between political opposites, Clay favored abolition and inspired Abraham Lincoln. But through his life, he was also an enslaver who enforced his supposed right to own people as property, even as…
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On Yom Kippur Jews ask, is Dean Kremer the new Sandy Koufax?
Imagine being a 24-year-old starting pitcher, having been called up to the show less than three weeks ago, playing four games, and already drawing comparisons to Sandy Koufax. Meet Baltimore’s Dean Kremer. In his first big league season, Kremer (1-1, 4.82 ERA), a right-hander for the Orioles, has pitched 18⅔ innings in four games. He’s…
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123 years of election coverage: What the vote means to American Jews
This is the first installment of a special series exploring The Forward’s election coverage since 1897. To get next week’s edition delivered to your inbox, click here to subscribe to The Forward’s free newsletter. For American Jews, the vote has always been a potent symbol. Many of our families came as immigrants from countries where…
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A month before her death, RBG made a (virtual) concert appearance
When Lewis Kaplan emailed Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s family, asking if she wanted to take part in a pandemic-era music festival, he didn’t know what would happen. What he didn’t expect was an immediate response from the justice’s daughter, Jane Ginsburg, telling him that the Notorious RBG was all in. No, this isn’t an exposé of…
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Making soul candles: a female-led Jewish ritual revived
Read this article in Yiddish In 2018, having always felt something lacking in a religion dominated by the writings of men, I started training with the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, a spiritual leadership program centered in feminine, earth-based approaches to Judaism. As a historical researcher, I’m always trying to find the stories that haven’t been…
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Why the shofar is the perfect soundtrack for ‘I May Destroy You’
For the Days of Awe that began in Elul and continue through Yom Kippur, there is no show more appropriate to watch than the BBC/HBO sensation, Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You.” What series more thoroughly asks for a cheshbon nefesh – the accounting of the soul? In truth, it might be the bravest TV…
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Documentarian Ric Burns on why there will never be another Oliver Sacks
In 2015, shortly before he died at the age of 82, Oliver Sacks was eating from a Tupperware container of green Jell-O, when he decided to tell a room full of people something deeply revealing. “Time was – it doesn’t occur now, but it used to occur until a few years ago – when I…
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Why did The Guardian say Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘abandoned’ her faith?
In the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, obituaries across the country lauded the jurist for her contributions to America’s judiciary system and civic life. But one contained a claim about Ginsburg’s personal life that left some Jews puzzled, and others outraged. The Guardian’s September 18 obituary initially declared that the justice had “abandoned her…
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Mel Gibson still working on that ‘Passion of the Christ’ sequel. But what’s the audience for that?
He’s baaaack. Hot off a revival of past antisemitic remarks, Mel Gibson is reportedly hard at work on a sequel to his 2004 antisemitic opus, “The Passion of the Christ.” Jim Caviezel, who played the role of Jesus in the film, told Breitbart in a recent interview that his character, while having suffered through unspeakable…
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Film & TV In ‘Tehran,’ Iranian Jewish actor Shaun Toub strives for a multi-dimensional ‘bad guy’
When actor Shaun Toub received the offer of a role in the series “Tehran,” he hesitated to take it– for three months. “I was concerned because I had never done an Israeli production, and I wasn’t sure if it’s going to be my cup of tea,” said Toub of the series that premieres September 25…
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Culture In a Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood, doctors’ visits are free, but the wait may cost you
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