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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‘Borat 2’ is coming. Can it still be funny in Trump’s America?
My wiiife. If you read that in the voice of the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s most celebrated creation, you’re not alone. While we last saw Borat nearly 15 years ago, his elongated reference to his spouse has clung to our brain’s language centers with the tenacity of Gorilla Glue….
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The rich, complicated history of Jews and bowling
September 9 marks the 125th anniversary of the formation of The American Bowling Congress (ABC), codifying US bowling standards and regulations, a group with surprisingly powerful Jewish resonance. The German Jewish literary historian Gustav Karpeles noted that Moses Mendelssohn the 18th century Jewish Enlightenment thinker, was so obsessed with bowling that he referred to it…
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Chinese food and me: The story of a lifelong love affair
CHAPTER 1: THE PLANTING The year was 1937. I was seven years old. I was with my father and mother, at a Chinese restaurant on 13th Avenue and 47th Street in Boro Park, Brooklyn. I think that this was the first Chinese restaurant I ever dined at, perhaps the first restaurant in my life. I…
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We could stop the violence in America — if only Gregory Peck were president again
Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks were just following the lead of the Boston Celtics’ superstar Amazing Grace Smith when they decided to boycott their NBA playoff game against the Orlando Magic on August 28th. Back in 1987, when Amazing Grace, the league’s leading scorer, quit basketball, he himself was only following the mission of his new…
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In Scotland’s pubs, a Jewish artist found her home. Then came the lockdown.
I am writing from my attic apartment situated across from the Royal Portrait Gallery, a red brick neoclassical building bedecked with many, many life-sized statues of important, snooty-looking men, on Queen Street in Edinburgh. One such figure, wearing knee britches and sporting an unimpressive pompadour, faces my window at eye level. I get the odd…
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David Graeber, Occupy activist and anthropologist, dies at 59
David Graeber, the anthropologist who played a pivotal role in Occupy Wall Street and devoted his academic career to the study of societal inequality and “bullshit jobs,” died September 2 at the age of 59. Graeber’s death was confirmed on Twitter by his wife, Nika Dubrovsky, who said he died at a hospital in Venice,…
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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…
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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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News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaeda in address to Republican officials
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Opinion Pete Hegseth is targeting a Jewish American hero — who’s next?
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Opinion The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder
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Fast Forward After IDF intercepts Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla, crew posts videos calling themselves ‘kidnapped’
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Opinion The righteous rabbis protesting those immigration raids in Los Angeles
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Fast Forward Israel recovers remains of Thai farmworker abducted on Oct. 7 from Gaza
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Yiddish World How my grandparents met: a Yiddish-American romance
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