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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The Secret Jewish History of Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Lynn, the songstress who boosted British troops’ morale through much of the 20th century, has died at 103. Best remembered for singing “We’ll Meet Again,” Lynn was the “Forces’ Sweetheart” for delivering reminders of the white cliffs of Dover to far off shores. Oftentimes, her crooned postcards for King and Country were penned…
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Happy 78th Birthday To Paul McCartney, The Jewish Beatle
About seven years ago, Sir Paul McCartney, who turns 78 today, released an album called “New.” But given the artist’s love affair with all things Jewish for the past half-century — including collaborators, business associates, girlfriends and wives — the title could well be meant as a transliteration of the all-purpose Jewish word nu. Recently,…
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Why Roy Cohn, a bully and coward, was also a victim
In 1988, Ivy Meeropol and her father, Michael, visited Washington, DC to see the massive AIDS quilt that covered the National Mall. The first panel they saw belonged to the man who sentenced Michael’s parents to death: “Roy Cohn,” it read in cut fabric letters, “Bully, Coward, Victim.” “It was the first I thought about…
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How Igor Stravinsky Changed Our Lives
Editor;s Note: Violinist Zvi Zeitlin passed away in 2012. He had started to write his memoirs and planned to include a chapter on his experiences with Igor Stravinsky. He never got to do this, so his widow, Marianne Langner Zeitlin, has written her own memories of that episode in their lives. We ran this article…
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Why are celebrities sharing a 30-year-old clip of Louis Farrakhan?
Update, June 17, 11:58 a.m.: Chelsea Handler has removed the clip of Louis Farrakhan from her Instagram profile. Jameela Jamil called him an “extraordinary man.” Jessica Chastain and Chelsea Handler said his words were “powerful.” Minister Louis Farrakhan must be pretty pleased with his reception. In a landscape where influencers and celebrities are scrambling to…
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A noshing tour of an eerily quiet Lower East Side
I love ghosts. I became a tour guide to visit the ghosts of the past and share them and their wisdom with my clients. Few places in New York have so many ghosts as the Lower East Side. Residing among the fusion restaurants, cafes and cocktail bars, the spirits of the many immigrant communities who…
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Why this Bloomsday is different from the rest
Now more than ever Leopold Bloom’s mundane day thrills with danger. While the protagonist of James Joyce’s “Ulysses” notoriously did very little, his every action — drinking at a pub; traipsing through Dublin; dining with his uncle at a hotel — now presents us with certain pandemic-related risks. Should we emulate Bloom as many bibliophiles…
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Who would win in a Ted Cruz-Ron Perlman showdown?
Somehow it’s come to this. There’s a global pandemic, nationwide demonstrations against racism, and in the middle of it all, a sitting U.S. senator has challenged “Hellboy” actor Ron Perlman to a wrestling match. Monday morning, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), mad over an earlier spat between Perlman and Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), let loose on…
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The ‘Fawlty Towers’ episode skewering Nazis deserves to be preserved
John Cleese can now boast that his little sitcom about a seaside hotel is a cultural lightning rod on the level of “Gone with the Wind.” Late last week, the BBC-owned streaming service UKTV removed a 1975 episode of “Fawlty Towers” for racial slurs, including the N-word and the British epithet “wog.” Cleese, the show’s…
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What Hasidim can teach everyone about staying safe on the Internet
Last year, the journalist Kevin Roose wrote about Caleb Cain, a young, white, twenty-something man who came to sympathize with the alt-right (and then abandon them) simply by watching YouTube videos. Cain’s journey was largely shaped by YouTube’s algorithm, which responded to his viewership by recommending increasingly right-wing content. Roose, who has spent years exploring…
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Abolishing the police is a radical idea — that’s been around for over a century
In 1905, Pennsylvania did something unprecedented: It founded America’s first state police force. The new institution, which was more highly militarized than previous law enforcement systems, was created for one reason: The state government wanted a more organized and efficient way to break strikes. The new force approached that mission with zeal — and violence….
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