This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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In Scotland’s pubs, a Jewish artist found her home. Then came the lockdown.
I am writing from my attic apartment situated across from the Royal Portrait Gallery, a red brick neoclassical building bedecked with many, many life-sized statues of important, snooty-looking men, on Queen Street in Edinburgh. One such figure, wearing knee britches and sporting an unimpressive pompadour, faces my window at eye level. I get the odd…
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We could stop the violence in America — if only Gregory Peck were president again
Maybe the Milwaukee Bucks were just following the lead of the Boston Celtics’ superstar Amazing Grace Smith when they decided to boycott their NBA playoff game against the Orlando Magic on August 28th. Back in 1987, when Amazing Grace, the league’s leading scorer, quit basketball, he himself was only following the mission of his new…
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David Graeber, Occupy activist and anthropologist, dies at 59
David Graeber, the anthropologist who played a pivotal role in Occupy Wall Street and devoted his academic career to the study of societal inequality and “bullshit jobs,” died September 2 at the age of 59. Graeber’s death was confirmed on Twitter by his wife, Nika Dubrovsky, who said he died at a hospital in Venice,…
The Latest
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October 1: Election town hall —New York and the 2020 election
This talk will take place on Thursday, October 1 at 7:00 p.m. ET/ 4:00 p.m. PT. Register here. With the pivotal 2020 presidential election around the corner, it’s essential to stay informed about the election’s potential impact on New York and understand how to be engaged in the voting process. Joining us for the conversation…
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Meet Antisemitism Cow, the cow who moos at Jew hatred on Twitter
In journalism school, Gay Talese’s 1966 profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” is required reading as an example of a “write-around.” A write-around is a story in which the reporter has limited access or an uncooperative source (in Talese’s case it was Old Blue Eyes). In hands like Talese’s, a write-around can be masterful and…
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HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ contains an anti-Semitic stereotype
This story contains spoilers. (JTA) — Like more than 1 million Americans in each of the last three weeks, I’ve been appreciating “Lovecraft Country,” the new HBO series that adds monsters and other fantasy elements to the real-life horror stories faced by Black Americans. The show’s main characters are all Black, and the white characters…
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Trump’s word stew aside, Jews have been weaponizing soup for centuries
As America shudders under the weight of nationwide protests against injustice and a race for a vaccine harkens back to the days of Jonas Salk, President Trump has reminded us of the original Jewish penicillin: soup. In now viral remarks that Trump made to the National Association of Police Organizations Leadership, the president was heard…
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For Israeli Air Force pioneer Al Schwimmer, WWII never really ended
Today, Wednesday, September 2, marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. For decades, we’ve romanticized the conclusive resolution of a global calamity that killed 30 million more people than the 1918 Spanish flu and 100 times more than COVID-19. With a nostalgic gleam in our eyes (even if most of us…
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Army officer makes Holocaust joke on TikTok
TikTok, whatever your feelings on the security of its Chinese ownership, is a hub for creative content — much of it Jewish. But like any other platform, it’s also vulnerable to the contributions of the crass, misguided and offensively unfunny. On Monday, 2nd Lt. Nathan Freihofer, a popular TikTok user with nearly 3 million followers,…
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1200-year-old soap factory discovered in Israel
Archaeologists in the southern Israeli city of Rahat have discovered remains of a 1,200-year-old soap factory — complete with break room games. The Israel Antiquities Authority has determined that the factory is likely the oldest one ever found in the country, according to Atlas Obscura, and date it back to the early Islamic period during…
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Why Emmett Till still matters
Next July will mark 80 years since Emmett Till was born, months before America entered the Second World War with segregated troops. He grew up on Chicago’s South Side, turning 14 in 1955, after the Supreme Court ruled in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka that American schools must desegregate. Till wasn’t part of…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish רבנישע כּתבֿים ווײַזן אומגעריכטע פֿאַרבינדונגען צווישן ייִדיש און לאַדינאָRabbinical texts reveal surprising links between Yiddish and Ladino
לויט אַ נײַ בוך פֿאָרשונגען האָבן טראַדיציאָנאַליסטן אין ביידע עדות געהאַלטן, אַז ייִדן מוזן אָפּהיטן זייער גערעדט לשון
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Opinion Why Poland’s president canceled his menorah lighting — and how the West helped make that happen
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Fast Forward 4 House Democrats introduce bill that would enact progressive vision for fighting antisemitism
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Yiddish אַ ייִדיש־רעדנדיק קינד דאַרף אַ „שטעטל“׃ ווי עלטערן קומען זיי אַנטקעגןIt takes a village to raise a child in Yiddish: How parents are doing it
מחוץ די חסידישע קרײַזן האָבן געוויסע עלטערן געשאַפֿן זייערע אייגענע ייִדיש־סבֿיבֿות
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