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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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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Weird, shapeless, claustrophobic, disjointed, solipsistic — the newest film from guess who?
Many years before he became the most famous niche, surrealist, seriocomic writer-director in Hollywood, Charlie Kaufman got himself stuck in a tight space. A closet, perhaps, or a hole he was too little to crawl out of. Wherever it was, he was trapped there for a long time, or at least long enough to spark…
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‘The Jewish Enquirer’ gives Brits a ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ of their own
When “The Jewish Enquirer” debuted on Amazon in March of this year, its chosen world of Jewish reportage was on the eve of a major disruption. The timing couldn’t have been better — or, perhaps, worse. The sitcom, which follows freelance reporter Paul Green’s Larry Davidian peregrinations through North London, arrived just before Britain’s leading…
The Latest
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Would Tevye vote for Trump or Biden? 25 fictional Jews weigh in.
The 2020 voter faces the ballot box during a season of unprecedented challenges — not least of which is the act of voting itself. In addition to the usual gerrymandering and voter suppression, a nationwide pandemic is poised to overwhelm an underfunded postal service. As if that weren’t enough, the president, repeating long-debunked claims of…
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Profiting from genocide, Disney’s ‘Mulan’ ignores lessons from the Holocaust
In 1944, the Theresienstadt concentration camp underwent a beautification. Living quarters improved. Gardens appeared. A school was established. When representatives of the Danish and International Red Cross came to inspect the camp — a step the Nazis believed essential to securing Denmark and Sweden’s continued compliance — they were pleased. Maurice Rossel, the ICRC’s representative,…
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‘Stretch one and paint it red’ — Tales from the life of a Bronx soda jerk
It was a very unusual experience — sitting in a wire mesh cage surrounded by dead chickens that were waiting to have their feathers removed. Aside from babysitting, it was my job: “Chicken Plucker.” What was required was a quick jerky movement of the fingers and hand to sever the chicken feathers from the chicken….
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20 phrases you need to know to work as a soda jerk
Editor’s Note: Our lox columnist has written about his past life as a soda jerk in the Bronx during the 1940s and 50s. At that time, working in that trade meant you had to speak the language of the lunch counter. We asked Len for a list of some of the most memorable phrases he…
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The many Jewish lives of Diana Rigg
The English actress Diana Rigg, who died on September 10 at age 82, was the epitome of graceful allure in the role of Emma Peel in the TV series “The Avengers” and in the James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” More recently she appeared in “Game of Thrones” in a less alluring, but…
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7 questions for ‘The Secrets We Keep’ director Yuval Adler
In the winter of 2018, Yuval Adler, the Israeli philosopher, mathematician, visual artist and Ophir award-winning filmmaker, received a series of messages from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Well, the actor who played her at least. Noomi Rapace, who originated the role of vigilante hacker Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s…
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Film & TV The secret Jewish history of ‘Dune’
Aside from its British pronunciation (“Jew-une”), the epic science fiction novel “Dune,” which is again being remade this year has a lot more Jewish resonances than one might expect. . Frank Herbert’s novel was originally published in 1965. It has been adapted for the screen several times, including a 1984 film by David Lynch and…
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Why Mulan is a perfect heroine for Jewish girls
Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan is not without its problems. Thank you’s to communist propagandists roll at the end of the movie; scenes were filmed in a region of China rife with human rights abuses; and star Liu Yifei has expressed public support for Hong Kong police despite a global outcry over the force’s brutality…
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Natan Sharansky on the virtues of a life lived backward
This essay was adapted from a new book Natan Sharansky wrote with Gil Troy, “Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People.” After living my life backward, the usual sequence seems overrated. Whenever I hear of friends separating after decades of marriage, I wonder, “Maybe they did it in the wrong order.” My wife, Avital, and…
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