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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Helen Reddy — She was a Jewish woman; hear her roar
The Australian singer Helen Reddy, who died on September 29 at age 78, is best remembered for the 1972 feminist anthem “I Am Woman,” a hit with surprising Jewish resonance. According to the “The Billboard Book of Number One Hits” Reddy was looking for positive songs about women to record, but decided that these did…
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Film & TV ‘Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles’ is an orgy of baking and a feast for the eyes
If I had to name the top two things helping me survive the pandemic, I would say my new dog, and watching television — the more escapist, the better. Right now it’s “Schitt’s Creek.” (You haven’t watched it? You must.) But way before that, my escape was “The Great British Baking Show.” It seems that…
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‘Borat 2’ is coming for Mike Pence — but what can it say about 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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A senator’s slip of the tongue reveals a ‘material’ crisis with our ‘materialistic’ politics
“There’s a materialistic difference between 2016 and 2020,” Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the number three ranking Senate Republican, said on the “PBS News Hour,” speaking on the question of appointing Supreme Court judges in those two election years. First, I thought it was a slip of the tongue. But now I think it is…
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For National Coffee Day, the Secret Jewish History of the coffee cup
Editor’s Note: For National Coffee Day, September 29, 2020, we bring you the compelling history, originally published in 2014, of those familiar vessels that store our liquid energy. In the Talmud (Eruvin 65b), Rabbi Ilai cleverly opines: “A person is recognized by three things: their cup, their pocket, and their anger.” In other words, how…
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Just how Jewish are the top 500 albums of all time?
Rolling Stone magazine recently updated its list of the Top 500 albums of the rock era for the first time since 2003. This time around, the list includes 50 albums by Jewish artists and groups — depending on how you define “Jewish artists and groups,” of course. For example, were the Band — whose main…
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BINTEL BRIEF Will the cousins be upset about a photographer at my Saturday wedding?
Bintel helps a bride navigate a wedding on Shabbat with Orthodox relatives
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Film & TV In ‘The Other Story,’ a tale of forgiveness as faith and family collide
_Author’s note: ‘The Other Story’ is playing September 28 as part of the Marlene Meyerson JCC’s online “Forgive Me Film-a-thon.” Marking the occasion, we’ve republished our review from July 1, 2019._ When children leave the insular world of Haredi Judaism, many parents sit shiva for them. Some choose to not even speak the child’s name…
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For America, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a new kind of Jew
In 1852, the Kentucky politician Henry Clay became the first person to lie in state in the United States Capitol Rotunda. A skilled liaison between political opposites, Clay favored abolition and inspired Abraham Lincoln. But through his life, he was also an enslaver who enforced his supposed right to own people as property, even as…
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Film & TV In ‘Tehran,’ an agent caught between Iran and Israel can’t find her way home
In an early episode of the spy thriller “Tehran,” a Mossad agent makes a house call. Yael Ashrafi (Liraz Charhi), the handler of hacker and series protagonist Tamar Rabinyan, pays a visit to her Mr. Rabinyan. She wants to know if Tamar might still have family in Iran and if, after ditching a reckless contact…
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On Yom Kippur Jews ask, is Dean Kremer the new Sandy Koufax?
Imagine being a 24-year-old starting pitcher, having been called up to the show less than three weeks ago, playing four games, and already drawing comparisons to Sandy Koufax. Meet Baltimore’s Dean Kremer. In his first big league season, Kremer (1-1, 4.82 ERA), a right-hander for the Orioles, has pitched 18⅔ innings in four games. He’s…
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Culture I come from a long line of Jewish Bundists. Now, Molly Crabapple is part of our family.
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Opinion American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt
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Fast Forward 200+ Bnei Menashe immigrate to Israel from India, the first to make the journey in years
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Yiddish װאָס קען מען זיך אָפּלערנען פֿון מאָלי קראַבעפּלס בוך װעגן „בונד“?What can we learn from Molly Crabapple’s book about the Bund?
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