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 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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After the Holocaust, displaced by indifference and paralysis
The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War By David Nasaw Penguin Press, 654 pages, $35 In the aftermath of World War II, Europe was in chaos, with millions homeless and in flight from violence, persecution or retribution for wartime crimes. Some had survived concentration camps; others had been forced laborers…
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The terrifying marriage of convenience between Israel and evangelical Zionists
At an August rally in Wisconsin, Donald Trump ditched the dog whistle of Jewish control and said the quiet part out loud. “We moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem,” Trump said to cheers at an Oshkosh airport. “That’s for the evangelicals.” Trump then paused and mused on a fact that struck him as curious:…
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J.D. Vance’s ‘Hillbilly Elegy’: A Jewish defense
Ron Howard's adaptation of J.D. Vance's book has been widely derided as poverty porn, but a Jewish reading yields something far-more nuanced
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Why the Covid lockdown has been good for Judaism
The months when a pandemic swept across our world and turned our lives into disarray were possibly the best months of my life. I am not in denial. I understand fully what the consequences of the pandemic were — businesses hurt; precious lives lost. And yet, it was hard not to appreciate what was clearly…
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There’s no way I can write a normal tribute to Woody Allen
Few still-living artists have tested the premise of the Death of the Author as much as Woody Allen — not so much for what he did, but what he’s accused of doing. While as a filmmaker, Allen, who turns a vital 85 today, has cemented as indelible a cinematic persona as Chaplin’s Tramp, in the…
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Is there life after Zabar’s?
So far so good. I don’t have Covid. I’m working hard at it; following all the guidelines, but being super aware that life is different now. Life changed dramatically for me in March when my friend Scott, store manager of Zabar’s, informed me that he didn’t want me working at Zabar’s until, as he put…
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For the real-life Alice of ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ a new reason to be thankful
This is a story about Alice of “Alice’s Restaurant” fame. “Alice’s Restaurant” is a song and a movie and once was an actual restaurant. But more than anything, “Alice’s Restaurant” is a frame of mind, one that might best be illustrated by the thousands of people who have helped the real-life woman immortalized in the…
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Looking for the truth in Gaza — through a camera lens
Jehad al-Saftawi grew up in Gaza. The field in front of his boyhood home was used to launch rockets into Israel. As he approached manhood, he witnessed Israel rain down rockets of its own, leveling apartment blocks. To get the full picture of where he comes from, Saftawi insists on making both of these truths…
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In France, waiting (and waiting and waiting) for school to be normal again
Like lots of American teens, I’m sitting at home on a Tuesday writing this when I’d normally be in school. Unlike most American teens, I’m in France. I’m not French. My dad got a two-year job six years ago and we’ve been here ever since. Not that I’m complaining; I’ve grown to love this country…
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