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
-
They set out to find ‘The Meaning of Hitler.’ How did they fail so badly?
Can any one film begin to answer the question of what, exactly, Hitler means? That’s the goal of the new documentary “The Meaning of Hitler,” named for and based on the 1978 Sebastian Haffner book of the same name. From the outset, its ambition proves problematic: Directors Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker chronicle various talking…
-
How a Jewish filmmaker wound up eating cake with the pope — an interview with Evgeny Afineevsky
Evgeny Afineevsky celebrated his 48th birthday with a very special person: Pope Francis, the most significant figure in the Catholic world. Afineevsky had just finished filming “Francesco,” a documentary on the pontiff’s teachings. Ahead of its premiere at the Rome Film Festival, Afineevsky brought some friends to a private meeting with the pope, who greeted…
-
WATCH NOW: February 2: Meet the Forward 50
Watch the recoding here. Every year we publish the Forward 50, a list of remarkable people who have had a particular impact on our communities. This year, we’re asking them to join our Editor-in-Chief, Jodi Rudoren, for “50 American Jews, 10 conversations,” a weekly series of Zoominars about …whatever is on their minds. The list…
The Latest
-
Playwright Israel Horovitz wrote with Jewish ethics, didn’t always practice them
The playwright Israel Horovitz, who died on Nov. 9 at age 81, proved that creating works redolent with Jewish history and identity can be a matter of adaptation. As Horovitz told The New York Times in March 1986, he grew up in a Massachusetts town with a tiny Jewish population, and felt himself ill-equipped to…
-
Is Jon Ossoff’s ‘Star Wars’ fan film better than ‘The Rise of Skywalker?’
A few years ago, in a state runoff far, far away, a Republican Super PAC used Jon Ossoff’s collegiate a cappella “Star Wars” fan film in a ludicrous attack ad. During Ossoff’s 2017 bid to represent Georgia’s Sixth Congressional District, the Congressional Leadership Fund uncovered footage of the current candidate for U.S. Senate cosplaying as…
-
Alton Brown makes an Auschwitz joke — then apologizes
Last night, Food Network host Alton Brown — a lifelong conservative but a Biden voter this time around — tossed a query out to the internet about the future dress code of America: “Do you think the camp uniforms will be striped, like the ones at Auschwitz or will plaid be in vogue?” What the…
-
Alec Baldwin departs WNYC in defense of Woody Allen
After hosting his talk show “Here’s the Thing” on WNYC since 2011, actor and comedian Alec Baldwin is decamping to iHeartRadio — because of Woody Allen. The shift is Baldwin’s latest demonstration of loyalty to Allen, his longtime friend, whose directorial career has in recent years been overshadowed by allegations of sexual abuse by his…
-
Alexander Vindman and his twin share their story of service
In a Veterans Day message, Lt. Col Alexander Vindman and his twin brother, Lt. Col Yevgeny Vindman, told their story on behalf of all refugees, military and civilian. In the video for HIAS, the 139-year-old Jewish nonprofit that aids refugees from around the world, the brothers, who were smeared as disloyal by the Trump administration,…
-
WATCH NOW: January 27: Meet the Forward 50 with Rabbi Sandra Lawson & Rabbi Dan Fink
Watch the recording here. Every year we publish the Forward 50, a list of remarkable people who have had a particular impact on our communities. This year, we’re asking them to join our Editor-in-Chief, Jodi Rudoren, for “50 American Jews, 10 conversations,” a weekly series of Zoominars about …whatever is on their minds. The list…
-
Can eyewitness footage from the West Bank change minds about the occupation? Not hers
The camera phone made everyone a documentarian. For the disenfranchised, this transformation was born of urgency. Armed with nothing more than a basic smartphone, people all over the world now have the means to command their own narratives of oppression — their own lived experience — and share them directly with millions. Recently, in America,…
-
The secret Jewish history of Elvis Costello
The first words Elvis Costello sings on his new album, “Hey Clockface” (Concord Records), are “I got no religion, I got no philosophy.” While the 66-year-old self-described “lapsed Catholic” might not adhere to any doctrine or creed, he has — like his father before him — enjoyed a storied career collaborating with Jewish artists. And…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Coldplay welcomed Israeli fans onstage ‘as equal humans.’ Why are some Jewish people mad?
- 2
Sports Forget being caught on camera at a Coldplay concert — I was caught on Shabbat at Yankee Stadium
- 3
Fast Forward Trump lawyer who praised ‘Mein Kampf’ is now accusing Harvard of antisemitism, report says
- 4
Opinion In the rush to vilify Israel, genocide scholars ignored the truth
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward 6 shot to death at Jerusalem bus stop in city’s deadliest attack in nearly 2 years
-
Culture 25 years ago, he wrote the book on ‘Jew vs. Jew.’ Now he is seeing new and deeper divisions.
-
Culture What I learned about life from preparing the dead
-
Fast Forward Mamdani calls for a permanent end to NYC investments in Israel Bonds
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism