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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For centuries, Jews have been battling epidemics like coronavirus
Decades after the Jews were expelled from Spain, a Jewish traveler worked his way through the medieval Jewish cemetery of Toledo, copying epitaphs from the gravestones there. One of them belonged to Joseph ben Meir Abulafia, a newlywed who, along with his wife, was among tens of millions of people — in Europe, as much…
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We need to talk about Ice Cube’s anti-Semitism allegations
Rapper, filmmaker, Eames chair enthusiast — anti-Semite? The internet is abuzz with allegations that Ice Cube was blowing the Jew-hate dog whistle. It started with a series of tweets. Last week, Cube tweeted an image of a London mural, “Freedom for Humanity,” in which a number of people who’ve been identified as Jews are seen…
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Is it really time to cancel ‘Blazing Saddles?’
It’s morning in America, and protestors have toppled yet another Confederate monument. But as that trend gains traction both on the streets and in the halls of Congress, a different sort of tribute to Old Dixie was placed on the chopping block. The new streaming service HBO Max announced it was removing “Gone with the…
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In ‘Gone With the Wind,’ a complicated Jewish subtext
The news that HBO Max streaming service has temporarily removed “Gone with the Wind” from its library to be refurbished with historical information and a “denouncement” of its ethnic and racial prejudices raises the question of how the film’s Yiddishkeit influenced this content. The 1939 film based on Margaret Mitchell’s novel had Jewish elements, starting…
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A portrait of Israel’s first family — and Israel, itself
Moshe Dayan was an icon with an eyepatch. He commanded the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, marched victorious through the Lions’ Gate in the 1967 Six Day War and served six prime ministers in matters of war and state. But he wasn’t alone either in his achievements or his eventual decline. The Dayans,…
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After Whitney row and Minneapolis outrage, Warren Kanders will stop making tear gas
Warren B. Kanders, the embattled former trustee of the Whitney Museum, will divest his company from divisions that produce tear gas, crowd-control munitions and riot equipment. Kanders, who stepped down as vice chair of the Whitney board following protests alleging that his company Safariland provided tear gas used at the U.S.-Mexico border and sponge munitions…
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MAD Magazine legend Al Jaffee folds it in at 99 — check out his last Fold-In
When it comes to comics, Fold-In king Al Jaffee has had a record-setting run. Now, the veteran cartoonist is retiring just shy of his 100th year. Jaffee, who holds the title for the longest-working comic artist of all time, worked for MAD Magazine for 65 years. In that time, he was something of a waggish…
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Mark Cuban: Being Jewish ‘allowed me to be more empathetic’
On June 1, Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and “Shark Tank” staple made a direct appeal to white people on Twitter, asking them to change their ways to improve the world for people of color. Dear White People: We are the ones that need to change. This is not one man’s story. This is…
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A daughter of Vienna returns to a traumatic past — and finds her home
I Belong to Vienna: A Jewish Family’s Story of Exile and Return By Anna Goldenberg Translated from German by Alta L. Price New Vessel Press, 207 pp, $16.95 Burdened by the legacy of trauma, children of Holocaust survivors such as Eva Hoffman, Thane Rosenbaum and Art Spiegelman face the challenge of penetrating their parents’ obdurate…
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Why Christo didn’t matter — and why that matters
Christo, who passed away last month at the age of 84, had a lot in common with some other famous one-namers. Like Ozymandias, he’s remembered for building big, eye-catching things that don’t exist anymore. Like Cher, he was around for most of the back half of the 20th century and a good chunk of 21st,…
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Why Jews loved Charles Dickens — and even Fagin
When Sholem Aleichem’s stories were translated into Russian, renowned critic Alexander Amfiteatrov likened him to Charles Dickens. The great Yiddish writer balked at the comparison. “He imagines that our literature has the amplitude of English literature and can produce a Dickens!” Sholem Aleichem wrote to his son-in-law, Y.D. Berkowitz. “Were Amfiteatrov to spend even a…
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