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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October 1: Election town hall —New York and the 2020 election
This talk will take place on Thursday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. ET/ 4:00 p.m. PT. Register here. With the pivotal 2020 presidential election around the corner, it’s essential to stay informed about the election’s potential impact on New York and understand how to be engaged in the voting process. Joining us for the conversation…
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Meet Antisemitism Cow, the cow who moos at Jew hatred on Twitter
In journalism school, Gay Talese’s 1966 profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” is required reading as an example of a “write-around.” A write-around is a story in which the reporter has limited access or an uncooperative source (in Talese’s case it was Old Blue Eyes). In hands like Talese’s, a write-around can be masterful and…
The Latest
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HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ contains an anti-Semitic stereotype
This story contains spoilers. (JTA) — Like more than 1 million Americans in each of the last three weeks, I’ve been appreciating “Lovecraft Country,” the new HBO series that adds monsters and other fantasy elements to the real-life horror stories faced by Black Americans. The show’s main characters are all Black, and the white characters…
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Trump’s word stew aside, Jews have been weaponizing soup for centuries
As America shudders under the weight of nationwide protests against injustice and a race for a vaccine harkens back to the days of Jonas Salk, President Trump has reminded us of the original Jewish penicillin: soup. In now viral remarks that Trump made to the National Association of Police Organizations Leadership, the president was heard…
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For Israeli Air Force pioneer Al Schwimmer, WWII never really ended
Today, Wednesday, September 2, marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. For decades, we’ve romanticized the conclusive resolution of a global calamity that killed 30 million more people than the 1918 Spanish flu and 100 times more than COVID-19. With a nostalgic gleam in our eyes (even if most of us…
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Army officer makes Holocaust joke on TikTok
TikTok, whatever your feelings on the security of its Chinese ownership, is a hub for creative content — much of it Jewish. But like any other platform, it’s also vulnerable to the contributions of the crass, misguided and offensively unfunny. On Monday, 2nd Lt. Nathan Freihofer, a popular TikTok user with nearly 3 million followers,…
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1200-year-old soap factory discovered in Israel
Archaeologists in the southern Israeli city of Rahat have discovered remains of a 1,200-year-old soap factory — complete with break room games. The Israel Antiquities Authority has determined that the factory is likely the oldest one ever found in the country, according to Atlas Obscura, and date it back to the early Islamic period during…
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Why Emmett Till still matters
Next July will mark 80 years since Emmett Till was born, months before America entered the Second World War with segregated troops. He grew up on Chicago’s South Side, turning 14 in 1955, after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka that American schools must desegregate. Till wasn’t part of…
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William Shatner sings the blues – we wish he wouldn’t
“Hubris,” the muse of music whispers each time William Shatner makes a new record. But will he not hear? Th 89-year-old actor, who has spent his quarantine attacking Twitter users who dare to call him a “cis” man, has a new album coming out October 2. This time he’s tackling that most doleful and soulful…
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Itzhak Perlman at 75: Celebrating a life in music and Yiddishkeit
On August 31, Itzhak Perlman turns 75, and a new 18-CD set tribute from SONY, complements a 77-disc set from Warner Classics issued for his 70th birthday. It is time to take stock of the Tel Aviv-born violinist’s storied career. Possibly overfamiliar to audiences from his TV chat show appearances and in crossover Hollywoodiana, Perlman…
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On Tik Tok, ‘dybbuk girl’ is mashing up Jewish history and culture
Golems and teens do not typically meet outside of the Prague Ghetto, but on the popular video app Tik Tok, Dybukk.girl.03 (aka Leonora Tepper.) is making sure they do. Tepper, a high school senior in Brooklyn, started making videos as a way to combat quarantine boredom, but soon found herself a niche and a following…
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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