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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Who would win in a Ted Cruz-Ron Perlman showdown?
Somehow it’s come to this. There’s a global pandemic, nationwide demonstrations against racism, and in the middle of it all, a sitting U.S. senator has challenged “Hellboy” actor Ron Perlman to a wrestling match. Monday morning, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), mad over an earlier spat between Perlman and Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), let loose on…
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The ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode skewering Nazis deserves to be preserved
John Cleese can now boast that his little sitcom about a seaside hotel is a cultural lightning rod on the level of “Gone with the Wind.” Late last week, the BBC-owned streaming service UKTV removed a 1975 episode of “Fawlty Towers” for racial slurs, including the N-word and the British epithet “wog.” Cleese, the show’s…
The Latest
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What Hasidim can teach everyone about staying safe on the Internet
Last year, the journalist Kevin Roose wrote about Caleb Cain, a young, white, twenty-something man who came to sympathize with the alt-right (and then abandon them) simply by watching YouTube videos. Cain’s journey was largely shaped by YouTube’s algorithm, which responded to his viewership by recommending increasingly right-wing content. Roose, who has spent years exploring…
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Abolishing the police is a radical idea — that’s been around for over a century
In 1905, Pennsylvania did something unprecedented: It founded America’s first state police force. The new institution, which was more highly militarized than previous law enforcement systems, was created for one reason: The state government wanted a more organized and efficient way to break strikes. The new force approached that mission with zeal — and violence….
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She channels the spirits of Elie Wiesel and Albert Einstein. She says ‘It’s time to look up.’
One Yom Kippur a few years ago, Marilyn Kapp sensed that a group of children was sitting with her in shul. They had all passed on, but Kapp was unfazed. She spoke to these out-of-body children, as she always does. “I said ‘Oh, are you from the Holocaust and would you like me to tell…
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Painting ‘Birkenau’ — and our collective oblivion
On one of the last days of the “before” era, I went to the Met Breuer to see “Gerhard Richter: Painting After All” — an extraordinary show that you can now see in a video tour online. As I walked to the museum, I saw groups of teenagers hanging out on Madison Avenue — while…
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WATCH NOW: July 13: Five Yiddish Comedians Walk Into a Zoom…
WATCH HERE. Join Forverts editor Rukhl Schaechter as she talks to contemporary stars of Yiddish comedy and mavens of Yiddish humor. Hear some of the routines that keep audiences coming back for more. This talk will be in English. Shane Baker has appeared both Off-Broadway and internationally as Vladimir in his own Yiddish translation of…
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The sturgeon will see you now — an expert’s guide to smoked fish
Smoked salmon or lox? That is the question. On Sunday mornings in the 1940’s and 50’s, Jewish people lined the streets of New York to get their lox fix from the appetizing stores around at the time. It was a ritual; there had to be lox on the Sunday breakfast table. Why did it happen?…
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The extremely problematic and incredibly harsh impact of Coronavirus on art
Most art is unfinished — quietly, unglamorously, pointlessly. Two and a half chapters of a novel yellowing in a bottom drawer; sets for a play nobody bothers to produce; a pilot never aired; a melody never resolved; a canvas never covered. That’s just the physical evidence — for every half-finished work, there are thousands that…
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No, that Trump bible photo isn’t ‘beautiful’ — it’s terrifying
President Trump has made two ultra-clear and extremely dangerous points with deep resonances in the history of totalitarianism: that visuals matter more than people’s lives, and that some people’s opinions — and by extension, lives — matter more than others. “I think it was a beautiful picture,” President Trump said on Fox when asked about…
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Bob Dylan calls George Floyd’s killing ‘beyond ugly’
Bob Dylan’s reputation as a cipher has its occasional cracks. While he’s tight-lipped as ever about his recent politics, he did make his name in protest songs. When he sees injustice, he’s not shy about calling it out — particularly when it comes to race in America. In a rare interviewwith The New York Times,…
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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 Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
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Special Report Trump and Jews: The first 100 days
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Fast Forward Ben-Gvir says he met with 4 members of Congress, rebuffed protesters at US Capitol
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