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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WATCH NOW July 8: An exit interview with Amb. Dani Dayan
Watch the recording here. Ambassador Dayan is heading home after four years as Israel’s Consul General in the New York area. What has he learned about American Jewry and our relationship with the Jewish state? How has the experience changed his understanding of U.S. politics — and Israel’s? Join Jodi Rudoren and Andrew Silow-Carroll, editors-in-chief…
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Books Is there any good time to publish a book during a pandemic?
“Timing is everything.” Larry Cohler-Esses wrote that line in 1995 in a Forward news story about my book contract with Simon and Schuster. I was the American Jewish Committee’s expert on antisemitism at the time. I had written a report on the militia movement ten days before the Oklahoma City bombing predicting attacks on government…
The Latest
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Why Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Kaddish’ is the perfect poem for these times
In this spring of fear and torment, COVID Spring, a spring when we mourn our dead, Jews are saying Kaddish too many times. When I grew up in a casually Jewish household we lit yahrzeit candles, and nothing focused my thoughts on the passing of all things like the familiar melody of Kaddish, As I…
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WATCH NOW June 30: A Jewish conversation for Pride Month: How far we’ve come, and what happens next?
Watch here. Fifty years after the first Pride march, this year’s celebration is different. Social-distancing has canceled many parades, and celebrations are mainly online. The Supreme Court just ruled that LGBTQ people are protected from employment discrimination. And the issue of inclusion has perhaps never been a higher priority in Jewish circles. On June’s last…
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Should we really keep comparing Trump to Hitler?
Yesterday, a few hundred feet from the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump’s Justice Department stage-managed a show of force against his own citizens. Today, the president is being compared to Adolf Hitler — again. Before curfew went into effect at 7 p.m. on Monday, peaceful protesters at Lafayette Square were met with police in…
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For Jews, curfews bring eerie reminders of Medieval and Holocaust eras
As cities across America contend with nightly curfews, many of us are likely unaware that the word “curfew” originates in medieval French and has resonances that run through centuries of Jewish history. The latest news can seem increasingly medieval — from plague to authoritarianism to the public murder of minorities — and the sudden ubiquity…
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Played a cop? Donate to bail funds, urges actor Griffin Newman
With film and TV production shut down for the foreseeable future, many actors are relying on royalties from reruns and syndication to get by. But self-proclaimed “out-of-work actor” Griffin Newman is using his own to help protestors raise bail. Late Monday night, Newman, best known for playing moth-themed superhero Arthur on Amazon’s “The Tick” and…
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The Secret Jewish history of The Rolling Stones
Editor’s Note: The Rolling Stones’ drummer Charlie Watts turns 79 today. In honor of that auspicious occasion, we return to this 2014 article about the band’s Jewish influences. In 2014, The Rolling Stones took the stage at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv. That event represented more than just the world’s greatest and longest-running rock band’s…
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When Jews were kings (and opium lords) in Shanghai
Author of “A Hole in the Heart of the World: Being Jewish in Eastern Europe” and “Broken Alliance: The Turbulent Times Between Blacks and Jews in America” Jonathan Kaufman teaches at Northeastern University. His new book, “The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China” tells of two Iraqi Jewish…
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WATCH NOW June 22: Why are Yiddish Songs So Popular Now?
Watch here. Join Rukhl Schaechter, editor of the Forverts, as she explores the growing interest in Yiddish music, with singers Lorin Sklamberg, Daniel Kahn, Sarah Gordon, Michael Alpert and folksong maven Itzik Gottesman – and hear them sing the songs that audiences love to hear. The discussion will be in English. This is part of…
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Woody Allen’s ‘Rainy Day’ tops global box office, heading for UK
Woody Allen’s 2019 film, “A Rainy Day in New York,” available for streaming this week in the UK, is doing good numbers at the box office – relatively speaking. The film topped the global box office in mid-May, earning over half a million in South Korea since opening in the country, which recently eased restrictions…
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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
In Case You Missed It
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News These are the most influential Jews in Trump’s first 100 days
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Fast Forward Nike apologizes for marathon ad using the Holocaust phrase ‘Never Again’
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Opinion I wrote the book on Hitler’s first 100 days. Here’s how Trump’s compare
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Fast Forward Ohio Applebee’s defaced with antisemitic graffiti reading ‘Jews work here’
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