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
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Why Hamantashen are the most divisive cookies in the world
Hamantashen are divisive cookies. Named after the Purim story’s villain, Haman, the triangle confections are supposed to resemble either his hat or his ears, depending who you ask — and many consider the often dry and crumbly cookie about as appetizing. Defending their honor is even part of the famed Latke-Hamantash Debate. (The Forward staff…
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Is it kosher to smoke weed for Purim?
The Talmud (Megillah 7b to be exact) tells us to get — and I’m paraphrasing here — totally smashed on Purim, so intoxicated that we cannot tell the difference between the story’s villain, Haman, and the hero, Mordechai. But the Talmud doesn’t specify which intoxicants to consume. Could you, perhaps, smoke a blunt instead of…
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Why a slice of pizza holds the key to ’90s New York
David Shapiro’s madeleine, the nostalgic bite that transports him back in time and space, is a slice of pizza made by a guy named Andrew Bellucci circa 1995. Or maybe it’s a casserole, consumed in a StuyTown apartment building in 1973, part of a “reparation playdate” for when his schoolmate, Leeds Atkinson, called him a…
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The Jewish visionary who defended Allen Ginsberg and warned of Trump’s Trojan horse
The American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died on Feb. 22 at age 101, drew on Jewish culture and history for inspiration in celebratory odes and at times of tragedy. The Yonkers-born Ferlinghetti, whose mother, Clemence Mendes-Monsanto, was of Sephardic Jewish origin, was an avid painter in addition to his accomplishments as writer and editor. One…
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In a virtual Purim spiel, a Yiddish revival and a surprising antidote to Zoom culture
One year after the onset of the pandemic, most American theaters are languishing in the dark. But performers are still competing for our eyeballs through ever-more-sophisticated slates of virtual entertainment. Polished, highly-produced events in the vein of “Saturday Night Seder” have attempted to reproduce the intimacy and immediacy of live theater, lulling us via special…
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Woody Allen’s extraordinary violence, laid bare
“Allen v. Farrow,” HBO Max’s new four-part documentary about Dylan Farrow’s allegations of sexual assault against her adopted father, Woody Allen, has an almost soothing domestic aesthetic, full of long shots of rustic Connecticut homesteads and rippling lakes. But the series, which investigates the deep and constant violence experienced by survivors of abuse, is anything…
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On the delights of discovering a truly ‘essential’ Jewish book
The great Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever’s life resembled an epic novel — and along the way, he wrote soul-piercing prose and saw himself in it. “These stories are myself,” he wrote on the flyleaf of his second book of prose, though readers will feel this instinctively, without being told; this prose could not have been…
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The secret Jewish history of ‘Easy Rider’
Peter Fonda, who died in 2019, would have celebrated his 81st birthday today (February 23). Besides being a member of one of Hollywood’s most lauded family dynasties — his father was Henry Fonda, his older sister is Jane Fonda, and his daughter is Bridget Fonda — Peter Fonda is best remembered for his role in…
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‘Jesusland’ won’t be good for the Jews. But the ‘United States of Canada’ might be good for bagels.
In a coup to graphic design sure to baffle cartographers, Andrew Torba, CEO of the far-right social media platform Gab, has laid out new borders for the United States, which he re-dubbed “Jesusland.” In case you were wondering what Gab CEO Andrew Torba wants, take a look. He posted this 3 hours ago. pic.twitter.com/kDotd9waW6 —…
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The secret Jewish history of Mars
Last week’s landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface reminds us of how life on Mars has long been an object of fascination here on Earth, from ancient times through David Bowie up until today. The Perseverance mission is just the latest to explore whether or not conditions in the Martian past or…
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Why does this podcast stand out from all the others?
The phrase “good girl” is always popping up on “Appearances,” Sharon Mashihi’s new narrative podcast. Family members often use that phrase to describe Melanie Barzadeh, the show’s fictional protagonist, even though she’s not really a “good girl” — at least, not by the standards of the Iranian-Jewish enclave in which she grew up. Unmarried in…
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News ‘It’s the Jews’: San Diego mosque shooters decried ‘the universal enemy’ in hate-filled manifesto
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Culture Proposal to ban Israeli products roils a Brooklyn members-only grocery
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Fast Forward Massive fire breaks out at kosher supermarket in London’s Golders Green
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Books Reading a Pakistani author’s 30-year-old novel helped me understand my parents’ views on intermarriage
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Yiddish נײַ־אַנטדעקטע פּרטים וועגן די סאָוועטישע ייִדן צווישן 1945 און 1953Newly discovered details about Soviet Jewry between 1945 and 1953
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Fast Forward Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Coop votes to boycott Israeli products