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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On the northwest side of Chicago, my old Jewish neighborhood may soon live on in infamy
Albany Park was home to Rosenblum's Bookstore, Weinberg's Clothing — and also alleged DC shooter Elias Rodriguez
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Film & TV ‘I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing if I wasn’t a Jew’ — Tamar Manasseh’s brave journey
Tamar Manasseh, the mother of two teenagers, remembers hearing about another young mom who had been shot and killed while attempting to break up a fight in broad daylight. “The newscasters said ‘She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ Manasseh, 41, told me over the phone from her home on Chicago’s south…
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To Bruce Springsteen, the Jewish writer of ‘Strange Fruit’ was the ‘Bob Dylan of his time’
To quote the bard Adam Sandler, “Bruce Springsteen’s isn’t Jewish, but my mother thinks he is.” When the Boss sat down with New York Times columnist (and debatable Jew) David Brooks to assemble a playlist for this moment of racial justice protests and social distancing, he picked two songs that were written by an oft-forgotten…
The Latest
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With ‘oven dodger’ comments coming home to roost, Mel Gibson runs afowl of ‘Chicken Run 2’
Mel Gibson’s clay chicken is cooked and no longer kosher. The actor and filmmaker, who made news this week for allegedly calling actress Winona Ryder an “oven dodger” in 1995, will not be asked reprise his role of Rocky in the sequel to Aardman Animation’s “Chicken Run” two sources with knowledge of the film told…
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‘Batman Forever’ and Brat Pack director Joel Schumacher dies at 80
Joel Schumacher had style. His was an edgy, campy, critically divisive panache somehow both ahead of its time and regressive. It was the open-shirted vampire chic of “The Lost Boys” and the lamentable “Bat nipples” of “Batman & Robin.” The filmmaker, who died Monday at the age of 80 after a yearlong battle with cancer,…
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What John Bolton’s tell-all tells us
Vladimir Putin digs Bibi Netanyahu. Jared Kushner screens Netanyahu’s calls. Donald Trump thinks that Chinese concentration camps are the right move and would support an Israeli strike on Iran. These are some of the insights in John Bolton’s long-awaited memoir “The Room Where It Happened,” out today from Simon & Schuster. He’s not holding much…
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What Michael – yes Michael – Bolton’s book tells us about Trump and Ukraine
Author’s note: On Tuesday, June 23, Simon & Schuster will release John Bolton’s tell-all, “The Room Where It Happened.” Since the book first made headlines in January for what it had to say about Trump’s dealings with the Ukraine, its content has been a regular source of speculation and exclusive excerpts. The Trump administration was…
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Trump’s Tulsa rant makes a lousy adult alternative song — Josh Radnor shows us why
Bob Dylan isn’t the only Jew who can sing longform ballads about presidential tragedies. “How I Met Your Mother” star Josh Radnor has set President Trump’s protracted monologue about his careful descent of a ramp at West Point to music. By the musician’s own admission, the speech is pretty bad lyrically. I set Trump’s insane…
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Can Jewish schools meet the challenge of Black Lives Matter?
Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. Barthelemy Atsin had his first encounter with the police when he was 13 years old: They pulled over as he walked down a street with friends, and subjected…
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From Basra to the Chelsea Hotel — My father’s journey
My father, George Chemeche, is 87 years old. I live with him here in the Chelsea Hotel. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, I haven’t really seen him. For his safety, I occupy the bedroom of our apartment and he occupies the living room, TV room and kitchen. I order groceries for my father,…
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14 films to watch for Pride
It’s a Pride Month like no other. The Trump administration revoked Obama-era health care protections for transgender patients. At the same time, the Supreme Court made a historic ruling in defense of queer people’s right to employment. JK Rowling has decided to pen a manifesto insisting on the saliency of “biological sex” — to the…
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With an epic new album, Bob Dylan finally delivers his Nobel lecture
When Bob Dylan finally responded to the Swedish Academy that awarded him the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature with the required lecture, about six months after the fact, he did so with a rambling, recorded monologue that at its best detailed some of his literary and musical influences and at its worst was a parody…
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