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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‘Stretch one and paint it red’ — Tales from the life of a Bronx soda jerk
It was a very unusual experience — sitting in a wire mesh cage surrounded by dead chickens that were waiting to have their feathers removed. Aside from babysitting, it was my job: “Chicken Plucker.” What was required was a quick jerky movement of the fingers and hand to sever the chicken feathers from the chicken….
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20 phrases you need to know to work as a soda jerk
Editor’s Note: Our lox columnist has written about his past life as a soda jerk in the Bronx during the 1940s and 50s. At that time, working in that trade meant you had to speak the language of the lunch counter. We asked Len for a list of some of the most memorable phrases he…
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The many Jewish lives of Diana Rigg
The English actress Diana Rigg, who died on September 10 at age 82, was the epitome of graceful allure in the role of Emma Peel in the TV series “The Avengers” and in the James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” More recently she appeared in “Game of Thrones” in a less alluring, but…
The Latest
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7 questions for ‘The Secrets We Keep’ director Yuval Adler
In the winter of 2018, Yuval Adler, the Israeli philosopher, mathematician, visual artist and Ophir award-winning filmmaker, received a series of messages from the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Well, the actor who played her at least. Noomi Rapace, who originated the role of vigilante hacker Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s…
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Film & TV The secret Jewish history of ‘Dune’
Aside from its British pronunciation (“Jew-une”), the epic science fiction novel “Dune,” which is again being remade this year has a lot more Jewish resonances than one might expect. . Frank Herbert’s novel was originally published in 1965. It has been adapted for the screen several times, including a 1984 film by David Lynch and…
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Why Mulan is a perfect heroine for Jewish girls
Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan is not without its problems. Thank you’s to communist propagandists roll at the end of the movie; scenes were filmed in a region of China rife with human rights abuses; and star Liu Yifei has expressed public support for Hong Kong police despite a global outcry over the force’s brutality…
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Natan Sharansky on the virtues of a life lived backward
This essay was adapted from a new book Natan Sharansky wrote with Gil Troy, “Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People.” After living my life backward, the usual sequence seems overrated. Whenever I hear of friends separating after decades of marriage, I wonder, “Maybe they did it in the wrong order.” My wife, Avital, and…
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‘Borat 2’ is coming. Can it still be funny in Trump’s America?
My wiiife. If you read that in the voice of the fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s most celebrated creation, you’re not alone. While we last saw Borat nearly 15 years ago, his elongated reference to his spouse has clung to our brain’s language centers with the tenacity of Gorilla Glue….
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The rich, complicated history of Jews and bowling
September 9 marks the 125th anniversary of the formation of The American Bowling Congress (ABC), codifying US bowling standards and regulations, a group with surprisingly powerful Jewish resonance. The German Jewish literary historian Gustav Karpeles noted that Moses Mendelssohn the 18th century Jewish Enlightenment thinker, was so obsessed with bowling that he referred to it…
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Chinese food and me: The story of a lifelong love affair
CHAPTER 1: THE PLANTING The year was 1937. I was seven years old. I was with my father and mother, at a Chinese restaurant on 13th Avenue and 47th Street in Boro Park, Brooklyn. I think that this was the first Chinese restaurant I ever dined at, perhaps the first restaurant in my life. I…
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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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