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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‘Quiz Show’ Whistleblower Herb Stempel was a symbol of Jewish struggles
On May 31, it was announced that Herbert Milton Stempel had died the previous month at age 93. Depicted in Robert Redford’s film 1994 “Quiz Show,” the Bronx-born Stempel won notoriety as a TV game show contestant and whistleblower on the fraudulent nature of the industry, in what became known as the 1950s quiz show…
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Escape from New York — a third-generation migration tale
On March 7, I took a picture of a “child pile” in my Brooklyn apartment. Ten of my daughter’s friends had spent the night, celebrating the closing of a school play they’d worked on. The floor was a mess of sleeping bags, pillows, backpacks, soda bottles and empty bags of Doritos. A Happy Birthday banner…
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Unexodus — a story of freedom
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Julie Levey, a 12th grader at New York’s Spence School. You can find more work from our young writers here. The smell of albondigas — Sephardic meatballs with peas and artichoke hearts —…
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Freedom is seeing others for who they truly are
These last couple of weeks during the quarantine, I’ve seen and heard an endless amount of complaints about people not being able to leave their houses and having to cancel vacations. One of the dubious perks that come with being poor is being used to not taking trips to places or going out a lot….
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‘Should he sit or should he go’ — a uniquely Zabar’s dilemma
It’s located just behind the manager’s desk in between the two time clocks that are used for signing in and out at break time, lunchtime and arrival or departure time. Customers use it when they discuss problems, order merchandise and inquire as to the location of various store items. Without question it’s in a very…
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Our dream cast for the new ‘Fiddler’ film
Casting in Hollywood is as precarious as a fiddler on the roof. Did you know, for instance, that James Caan was nearly Han Solo or that Armie Hammer was this close to being Batman? Things fall through. But here at the Forward, every one of us is a casting director, trying to fit our favorite…
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The Weinstein brothers and Disney named in underage rape lawsuit
Now serving a 23-year-prison sentence, convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein may once again face a legal battle — this time he wouldn’t be alone. On May 28, four women filed a sexual abuse lawsuit in New York, naming Weinstein, his brother and former producing partner, Robert Weinstein, and the Walt Disney Company, which owned the Weinstein’s…
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To be free is to love
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Rachel Ezrielev, a 13-year-old student from Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, MD. You can find more work from our young writers here As they punched me, slamming me against a wall and…
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Is Netflix’s Jeffrey Epstein doc too slick for its own good?
When Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in August, 2019, there were widespread rumors from across the political spectrum that he was, in fact, murdered by his powerful acquaintances. It seemed unbelievable that the accused sex trafficker, just released from suicide watch following an earlier attempt to take his own life,…
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‘Hamilton’ director set for new film of ‘Fiddler’
Miracle of miracles, we’re getting another film adaptation of “Fiddler on the Roof.” And this time, the director’s Jewish. Thomas Kail, the Tony-winning director of “Hamilton” is set to helm the new adaptation of Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock’s classic musical, Deadline reports, with a script by Kail’s former collaborator, Tony-winner Steven Levenson (“Dear Evan…
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How Rush rescued me in quarantine — twice
As these days of self-quarantine warp and fold my sense of time, I’ve increasingly found my mind drifting back forty years, to the last time I was floating in a similar state of semi-housebound limbo. I’d moved to Chicago from Los Angeles with my mom and sister at the end of 1979. I had been…
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