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 really is Jewish” — Little Richard’s lifelong love affair with Judaism
Little Richard, the rock and roll pioneer who died on May 9 at age 87, brought a galvanic charge to live performances of such songs as “Tutti Frutti,” “Heebie Jeebies” and “Lucille,” drawing sustained inspiration from what he considered to be a Jewish identity. This self-definition went beyond what some writers have identified as emotional…
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Seeking Jewish identity at the Sabra hummus factory
Editor’s Note: On May 4, 2020, the James Beard Foundation announced the finalists for its writing awards. This piece, originally published in the Forward in 2019, is one of three finalists for the long form personal essay award. Winners will be announced on May 27. Three blue cornflowers, stenciled on white ceramic — for the…
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Have you noticed — a poem
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Shoshana Stern, a 17-year-old student at Sycamore High School in Cincinnati. You can find more work from our young writers here. Have you noticed “This is a free country” Has turned from A…
The Latest
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The Secret Jewish History Of “Rock Around The Clock”
It wasn’t the first rock-and-roll song. It wasn’t even the first rock-and-roll hit. But 66 years ago today, Bill Haley and His Comets’ version of “Rock Around the Clock” was released, beginning its long, strange journey to the top of the pop charts, where it became the first rock-and-roll tune to hit the No. 1…
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Books In ‘Little Eyes,’ a human gaze more frightening than the digital
There’s a gut-clenchingly tender moment midway through “Little Eyes,” Samanta Schweblin’s deft and ineffably creepy new novel, when Emilia, a lonely Peruvian widow, gazes on a pair of closed eyes. “It had been a very long time since she had seen anyone with their eyes closed,” she observes; not since her son, a banker based…
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She drew Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande’s new single — and ‘A Bintel Brief’
Cartoonist Liana Finck is a prolific author, contributor to the Forward and The New Yorker and, now, a collaborator with two of the most famous musical artists on the planet. Late last night, in the Bob Dylan surprise content hour, Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande dropped their latest single, “Stuck With U,” a duet that…
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Mindy Kaling’s hit teen comedy has a serious Jewish problem
“Never Have I Ever,” Netflix’s newest teen comedy from Mindy Kaling — the comedian best known for her writing and acting on “The Office” and “The Mindy Project” — has been broadly celebrated for its diversity, and widely hailed as the perfect quarantine watch to binge. That praise is in many ways deserved: The show…
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For Saul Bass on his 100th birthday
To say that Saul Bass designed the 1950s and ‘60s might be an understatement. In truth, you could say that he designed about three or four decades more. The Bronx-born artist, known for his cubist silhouettes and part-for-the-whole approach, would have turned 100 on May 8. The highlights of his career in film lasted almost…
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Who’s narrating Bob Dylan’s prophetic new song? Satan, God or Dylan himself?
In March 1963, Bob Dylan made a demo recording of “Long Time Gone,” one of numerous original songs he wrote for his publishing company, Witmark. In that early song, never officially released, Dylan sings, “I know I ain’t no prophet / And I ain’t no prophet’s son.” Dylan was lyrically riffing on Amos 7:14, where…
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Three things Alice Walker gets dead wrong about anti-Semitism
Editor’s note: We’ve republished this piece, originally published on December 20, 2018, after Walker’s appearance this week on writer Cheryl Strayed’s podcast for The New York Times, “Sugar Calling,” created new outrage. Earlier this week, the internet issued a collective groan when Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker recommended a book by the anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist…
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Meet the Tel Aviv teen bringing gender equality to playing cards
Here’s a magic trick: Imagine a standard deck of cards. Now visualize the highest value face card. I don’t need to be David Copperfield to know you’ve pictured a king. But why should that be? After all, queens have been some of the most successful, beloved and longest-serving monarchs. Why are they worth less than…
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