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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A good way to celebrate a birthday during a pandemic
Before Covid-19, my friends and I would have sleepovers, play games galore, and plan exciting birthday parties. At one of my birthday parties, we choreographed and danced to a song. On another birthday, we made fashionable outfits out of duct tape and newspaper and sashayed around in high couture. But since the pandemic struck, so…
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The best gifts on the internet for Hanukkah at home
Let’s admit it: Hanukkah is the perfect pandemic holiday. Its central rituals take place entirely at home. It can be celebrated alone or in small groups. And it involves one of the chief pastimes of the coronavirus era: eating way more carbs than we should. But in a year when many of us have barely…
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How Alison Lurie inherited her Jewish sense of social consciousness
The writer Alison Lurie, who died on Dec. 3 at age 94, proved that an inherited Jewish sense of social consciousness can inspire a literary career. Author of the celebrated novels “The War Between the Tates” and “Foreign Affairs,” Lurie was the daughter of Harry Lurie (1892-1973), a Latvian-born sociologist and expert in Jewish social…
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The toll Covid has taken on teens like me
My life has changed so much since February earlier this year. Only nine months ago I was an ocean away in Israel on a school trip with my eighth grade classmates having a blast. We were all pretty excited and were trying to make as many good memories as we could during our last year…
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Daveed Diggs gifts us a fresh Hanukkah song — and a puppy
Look, the Hanukkah song book has a lot of vacancies when compared to its seasonal neighbor. “Sevivon Sov Sov Sov,” kinda slaps, but we could always use an updated anthem. Enter “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs with a new tune that fully captures the thrills — and many disappointments — of the Festival of Lights. The…
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Here’s what a 16th-century rabbi said when Henry VIII asked for relationship advice
A new exhibit of Hebrew manuscripts at the British Library in London includes plenty of stuff you’d expect: Among other items, it boasts a Hebrew Bible from the 10th century and the earliest known copy of Maimonides’ “Guide to the Perplexed.” But there’s one very surprising artifact at the exhibit, which stateside Judaica aficionados can…
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In an English sea town, a 91-year-old synagogue needs saving
Read this article in Yiddish Francesca Ter-Berg has lived in the coastal English town of Margate for a year and a half. It took her over a year to find the local shul. It was hidden on a backstreet and had been shuttered for years. Soon after discovering it, she learned it was set to…
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The real ‘Mank’ hated Hitler and helped refugees — he was also an isolationist
Holed up at a dusty ranch in Victorville, California, with a full-leg cast, screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz has been self-medicating as he works his way through a draft of “Citizen Kane.” When his secretary, Rita Alexander, learns he’s sneaked booze into the guest residence, she confronts his accomplice, a German nurse. “Frieda, you mustn’t let…
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The ultimate arty and ethical Hanukkah gift guide
By now we all know which of our possessions most enrich our lives — because we’ve been stuck looking at them for nine months. We also wrestle with the albatross of annoying clutter. So, when it comes time to Hanukkah shopping this year, apply this same lens to gift giving. Here are items that are…
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Why the Mona Lisa is a lot more Jewish than you might think
Art mavens have until Dec. 15 to bid on the chance to witness the annual inspection of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa outside of its display case in the Louvre Museum. Mona Lisa mania, as the Louvre calls it, has affected people, including many Jewish fans, ever since the portrait was painted around the year…
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Finding the bright side of a very dark time
It started as a whisper – a breeze gently tickling her ear. The gale got a little stronger. And then, before I knew what had happened, it ripped my feet that, seconds before, had been planted firmly on the ground! I flew in the air, my hair whipping my face. And then, as I opened…
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Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
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Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
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Fast Forward Hanukkah shooting leaves at least 15 dead at Australia’s most popular beach
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Fast Forward Father and son suspects in Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack identified as Sajid and Naveed Akram by law enforcement
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Opinion I’m a 25-year-old semi-Zionist. Here’s what that means this Hanukkah.
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Fast Forward Citing Sydney attack, police in London say they will now arrest those who chant ‘globalize the intifada’
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