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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He fled Jim Crow — then risked his future for two Holocaust survivors
Lieutenant John Withers had every reason to say no. The army, though segregated, was his only realistic shot at a better life. As an aspiring professor, Withers hoped the GI Bill would help him get a Ph.D., and maybe — just maybe — escape the fate that America had written for him. But a dishonorable…
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WATCH NOW: October 26: Divided We Fall: How the crises of 2020 have furthered the gaps among groups and what to do about it
This talk took take place on Monday, October 26. Watch here. Join an extraordinary conversation that brings together respected national leaders for a discussion of how antisemitism, racism and anti-Black/anti-Immigrant narratives have pervaded our national conversation during these tense pre-election days — AND what we can do about it. Jodi Rudoren, editor-in-chief of the Forward,…
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Steve Martin’s greatest accomplishment? Making WASPs funny.
Toward the end of the 1983 comedy “The Man with Two Brains,” Steve Martin, as Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, is blasted with a drumfire of ethnic slurs. Learning that his sadistic wife, Dolores (Kathleen Turner), withheld the news of his grandmother’s death, he reaches his breaking point and fights with her for the first time. During…
The Latest
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WATCH NOW: October 22: The 2020 Election: Disinformation and Democracy
Watch here. Online hate and disinformation have long impacted Jewish communities and the health of democracy and civic life. Now, conspiracy theorists and other bad actors are using disinformation to play an outsized role in the 2020 Election and exploiting public anxiety to sow division and chaos and to shatter public trust in voting and…
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WATCH NOW: October 19: The Forward’s first Come As You Are gala: Comedy & cocktails in challenging times
Our virtual gala is took place on Monday, October 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET/ 5:30 p.m. PT. Watch the recording here. Comedians, celebrities, politicians and your favorite Forward journalists gathered on screen for a light-hearted evening in these uncertain times. Emcee Jessica Kirson kept us laughing through the night as we heard from Mayim Bialik,…
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Kamala Harris’ Yiddish Nickname Shows How Close She Is With Her Jewish Family
(JTA) — In the middle of her first speech as Joe Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris disclosed her favorite nickname. “My family means everything to me. And I’ve had a lot of titles over my career, and certainly, vice president will be great, but ‘momala’ will always be the one that means the most,”…
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How BTS and K-pop exploded the world music scene
In June, a self-contained — if not quite silent — majority made its presence known to the world. Fans of K-pop, the common shorthand for South Korean popular music, banded together to inflate President Donald Trump’s projected turnout for his widely-publicized rally in Tulsa, Okla. While their scheme, which resulted in a sea of empty…
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They returned to summer camp — and saw the country’s political future
In 2017, a Texan governmental body voted to secede from the United States. No, it wasn’t the state’s legislature. It was a group of rebellious participants in Boys State, a summer program founded in 1935 by the American Legion that aims to inculcate the values of civil discourse in a population not known for that…
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WATCH: October 1: Still Small Voice: Talking about God in the midst of a plague
Watch here. Abigail Pogrebin, author and Forward contributor, will be joined by four of the 18 rabbis she interviewed for our recent series on God: David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, Angela Buchdahl of Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, David Ingber of Manhattan’s Romemu and Laura Shaw Frank of AJC. The talk will be moderated…
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Disney’s ‘Howard,’ a touching tribute to its master lyricist, leaves his work unfinished
Lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken set off an age of rebirth for Disney Animation with their humorous, humanistic work on classics “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Much has changed for the company since, and a distressing amount has remained the same. Like most major media companies, the House of Mouse…
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The Nazi soldier who became an English soccer star — with a rabbi’s help
It seems almost inconceivable that there was a time when we could love our enemies and they would love us back. Marcus Rosenmüller’s “The Keeper” — part of this week’s Meyerson JCC Film Center offerings, with a screening and conversation the afternoon of August 11 — is a historical film that engages the possibility that…
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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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