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
-
Music
Reclaiming Salome as seductress, murderess and misunderstood Jew
Most of what we know about Salome was written or imagined well after her alleged crime. Reviled as a seductress, who, some 2,000 years ago danced in front of her stepfather, Herod, before requesting the head of John the Baptist on a platter, Salome has had a sizable imprint on western culture in film, opera…
-
A doorbell cam captured Paul Milgrom’s Nobel win — but his mezuzah was the real star
Around 2 a.m. on the morning of October 12, Stanford economist Robert Wilson ventured outside to break some important news to his neighbor and research partner Paul Milgrom: Together, they had won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their contributions to auction theory. The Swedish Academy seems to revel in the confusion it causes by…
-
Elizabeth Taylor was the original Jewish Cleopatra
Editor’s Note: Gal Gadot will not be the first Jewish Cleopatra. While news of the Israeli actress’ casting in a new version of the Egyptian queen’s story caused on online kerfuffle, there is a high quality precedent for a member of the tribe donning the Ptolemaic monarch’s beaded headdress. Elizabeth Taylor, whose conversion to Judaism…
The Latest
-
Lenny Kravitz pays loving tribute to his Jewish grandparents — and their kasha varnishkes
Who said, “I was just a happy-go-lucky kid hanging out in my grandma’s kitchen eating kasha varnishkes”? Uncle Solly? Your mother? Me? (Well, yes, but never mind that.) Would you believe: self-professed hippie-stoner rock star Lenny Kravitz? Because that’s just one of many of the heymish memories the multiple Grammy Award-winning rock artist and producer…
-
In her greatest hit, Stevie Nicks spun a Kabbalistic tale
With the news that Stevie Nicks has inked a deal with a studio to make a TV miniseries based on her song “Rhiannon,” the only question left is whether or not the show will explore the Kabbalistic depths of the 1976 hit that propelled Fleetwood Mac into the mainstream. A rolling stone gathers no moss…
-
Gal Gadot’s Cleopatra casting has people mad for the wrong reasons
With the announcement that Gal Gadot is slated to play Egyptian monarch and doomed snake handler Cleopatra, the Israeli star has earned her crown as the queen of internet controversies. It’s been nearly seven full months since Gadot released the “Imagine” video, so she was due for another social media dustup. The news broke yesterday…
-
43 years after Skokie, Ira Glasser is still fighting for free speech
Freedom of speech is mined territory. Does the first amendment extend to inciting violence? And how do you define “incitement” Just ask 82-year-old Ira Glasser who served as the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union for 23 years (1978-2001) and is best known for his involvement with the controversial Skokie case. In 1977,…
-
How the Forward, with humor and vehemence, taught its readers to vote
This is the third installment of a special series exploring The Forward’s election coverage throughout its 123-year history. Click here to sign up to receive it through our email newsletter, and find our earlier installments here. Look: Voting’s complicated. There are different deadlines to register depending on where you live, mixed messages about identification requirements…
-
Like the Jewish women laureates before her, Louise Glück sees humanity in God
On October 8, the American poet Louise Glück became the 16th woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the fourth Jewish woman, following Nelly Sachs (1966), Nadime Gordimer (1991) and Elfriede Jelinek (2004). There’s much that separates Glück, whose work has long been known for its deceptive clarity, from her Jewish predecessors. She…
-
Now 90, Frederick Wiseman is as vital and relevant as ever
If there were a Nobel Prize for documentary filmmaking, Frederick Wiseman would have won a long time ago. Not just because he’s talented (no guarantee of Stockholm gold), but because his work seems to fit so well with the guilty dynamite mogul’s pet ideals: “wide-hearted humanity,” “benefit to mankind,” and so forth. The first time…
-
On his 80th birthday, remembering the time John Lennon sang ‘Hava Nagilah’
Had he not been gunned down in December 1980 by a deranged “fan” lying in wait for him outside of his Upper West Side residence in Manhattan, John Lennon may well have been observing his 80th birthday on Friday, October 9. The ostensible founder and leader of the Beatles, the most beloved critically and commercially…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders?
- 2
Music Remembering Ozzy Osbourne’s Jewish vow renewal
- 3
Fast Forward Cuomo says key factor in his primary loss was Mamdani’s support from young, Jewish and pro-Palestinian voters
- 4
Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion In a time of fear and despair, we can still feel and inspire awe
-
Fast Forward 7 major US Jewish groups decline meeting with French official after ‘premature Palestinian state recognition’
-
Fast Forward Why Bard College’s orchestra performed Mendelssohn at the site of Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies
-
Fast Forward Trump says Hamas didn’t want ceasefire deal after US, Israel pull out of negotiations: ‘I think they want to die’
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
