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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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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Books Remembering Israeli Literature’s Only Nobel Laureate
Shai Agnon was born on this day in 1888. To commemorate that auspicious day, we return to this story, originally published in 2013, about Israel’s only Nobel laureate for literature. Sitting in a lecture hall in the Talpiot section of Jerusalem, a group of 25 immigrants is discussing “A City and Its Fullness” (“Ir U’meloah”…
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How Woodstock revolutionized art — a story that has nothing to do with a music festival
At the end of the 60s, for reasons that had nothing to do with Jimi Hendrix, the town of Woodstock, N.Y. changed the course of American culture. By the first day of the Woodstock Music & Art Festival — which didn’t even take place in the town it’s named for, and was more retrospect than…
The Latest
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We should talk about the Jewish backstory of ‘All About Eve’
This year marks the 70th anniversary of “All About Eve,” the landmark screen drama with a backstory that implies how risky Jewish identity, whether overt or repressed, could be circa 1950. Written and directed by the American Jewish filmmaker Joseph L. Mankiewicz, “All About Eve” was adapted from a short story inspired by an ambitious…
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In a Polish Netflix thriller, undercurrents of The Holocaust
In the proliferation of Jewish-themed shows on streaming services, one in particular has not gotten the attention it deserves. The omission is surprising given that it is an excellent six-part thriller in which Jewish themes run deep. “The Woods,” currently on Netflix, is an adaptation of a 2007 novel of the same name by the…
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Music Woody Guthrie’s Jewish Soul And The Tale Of A Tulsa Tallis
Editor’s Note: Woody Guthrie was born on this day in 1912. In honor of that illustrious date, we are repubilshing this story that touches on Guthrie’s Jewish history. In the summer of 2014, on the strength of a BMI-Woody Guthrie Fellowship, I spent a glorious few weeks researching in the archives in the Woody Guthrie…
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Why Jewish music should take a lesson from heavy metal
Why is it that we never hear Jewish songs about the story of Cain and Abel? A number of years ago I listened to a song called “Chapter Four” by one of the greatest modern metal bands, Avenged Sevenfold. The song describes the rivalry between two brothers, one “born of light” and the other “black…
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On Patrick Stewart’s 80th birthday, his secret Jewish history
Actor Patrick Stewart, who turns 80 on Monday, July 13, 2020, isn’t Jewish. But that didn’t stop him from assuming — incorrectly — for well over half his life that a mohel, or someone with a very sharp implement, had removed his foreskin shortly after birth. On a TV talk show in 2017, Stewart revealed…
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WATCH NOW: August 31: The new way to raise money for the causes you love
WATCH HERE. Philanthropist Lisa Greer, author of the just-released “Philanthropy Revolution: How to inspire donors, build relationships, and make a difference” (Harper Collins) joins Forward National Editor Rob Eshman and Andres Spokoiny, President and CEO of Jewish Funders Network, for a conversation on a better way to raise money for the causes you believe in….
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Dylan’s latest really is his best since ‘Blood on the Tracks’
“The best Bob Dylan album since “Blood on the Tracks” — that mythical peak has been both something of a holy grail for Dylan obsessives and a lazy way for critics to overpraise the current Dylan effort they were supposed to be appraising. In many ways, Dylan fans have been more discerning than critics, far…
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Dylan’s best since ‘Blood on the Tracks?’ You’re asking the wrong question
To me ranking albums, paintings, buildings, poems, or anything else in art — including baseball teams, players and moments — makes no sense. I could care less what anybody, myself included, thinks are the best ten Rolling Stones songs, the three essential Emily Dickinson poems, or if “Portnoy’s Complaint,” “I Married a Communist,” “Sabbath’s Theater,” or “The…
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In my life, there were two Bob Dylans — my father’s and mine
The sounds of a big house in the south of Mexico City. A house full of books, albums, paintings, sculptures and dust. This was the place of my dad, a place filled with music, ideas and wonders. My Dominican mother decided to move here after living in D.R, U.S.A and the late USSR; and by…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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Fast Forward A Jewish city attorney is going after pro-Palestinian protesters. Her Oct. 7 tweets are making it complicated.
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Fast Forward Kehlani responds to Cornell concert cancellation: ‘I am not antisemitic’
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Fast Forward David Horowitz, ’60s radical turned right-wing firebrand and critic of Islam, dies at 86
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News Pro-Nazi singer sells out Zagreb arena as Croatia’s collaborationist past sheds its taboo
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