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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Your guide to everything Jewish about ‘Star Wars’
The temporally distant and far-flung galaxy of “Star Wars” is, like the Torah, a text touched by many hands over the years. While creator George Lucas’ initial narrative impulse — relying on dull arcana like the “Journal of the Whills” — was Midrashic, the many Jews who worked on the script, and eventually assumed the…
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Think the sex in ‘Unorthodox’ was inaccurate? Check your male privilege
Eli Spitzer’s article “No, the way sex is portrayed in “Unorthodox” is not accurate — it’s a hateful libel” serves as both title and introduction to the screed leveled against the film-makers of “Unorthodox,” the four-episode Netflix series based in part on the memoir of the same name by Deborah Feldman. Feldman is a woman…
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Pandemics have always incited anti-Semitism. Here’s the history you need to know.
Every pandemic begins with a terrifying moment in which it seems impossible to explain what is happening. Often, whoever is considered the “other” in society is blamed, a scapegoating we see happening here and now. President Trump’s administration has drawn criticism for periodically insisting on calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus,” a move many see…
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Sometimes freedom means leaving America behind
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Cienna Olenick, a student at the College International in Fontainebleau, France. You can find more work from our young writers here. “Est-ce que vous etes demi-pensionnaire ou externe?” our teacher asked. The blank…
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WATCH NOW: Yihye Tov: A conversation/concert with David Broza
Watch here. Written with Yonatan Geffen in 1977, Broza’s anthem “Yihye Tov” (Things Will Be Better) has never been more resonant. Jodi Rudoren, Forward editor-in-chief, talks with the famed Israeli singer-songwriter about his life in quarantine in New York City; his just-released instrumental album of Spanish guitar, En Casa Limón; and the prospect of Tu…
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Why we must remember the martyrs of Kent State
This week marks the 45th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. 15 years ago, I visited Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Hanoi and Da Nang and for that brief period of time, got to know some people from the reunited country. It’s funny. Wars are started by governments, not people — I spoke…
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Why Mort Drucker mattered
If Andy Warhol was a great artist, so was Mort Drucker, the MAD Magazine cartoonist who died last month at the age of 91. Like Warhol, Drucker was a prolific draftsman with an unmistakable line (as thin and brisk as Warhol’s was fat and blotted). His great themes were the gleaming Warholian trinity of Hollywood,…
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Freedom — a short story
Editor’s Note: The Forward’s Youth Writing Contest is asking middle and high school students to submit essays, short stories and poems on the topic “What It Means To Be Free.” Our deadline has passed, but before we announce or winners, we’re continuing to publish the work of our young writers. Today, we’re proud to publish…
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WATCH NOW: Rob Eshman on ‘Inside the Rabbi’s Study’
National Editor, Rob Eshman joins an episode of Valley Beth Shalom’s ‘Inside the Rabbi’s Study’, an exclusive interview series with prominent clergy and educators in the LA Jewish community. Rabbi Ed Feinstein and Eshman discuss his new role and how he’s expanding The Forward’s national and international presence. Watch the interview here.
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WATCH NOW: The Changing U.S. Political Landscape and What’s at Stake for American Jews
The Changing U.S. Political Landscape and What’s at Stake for American Jews – AJC Advocacy Anywhere Watch the recording here. Identity politics — the formation of political alliances based on one’s own race, religion, gender, or social background — is a quickly growing phenomenon in the political landscape of the United States. This shift away…
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Join the Forward’s next book club — featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks
We organized The Forward Book Club on a whim, hoping to give our readers, and ourselves, a sense of community in a time of distance. Our first book was “Bread Givers” by Anzia Yezierska. Over our month of conversations about that novel, our meetings became something we looked forward to every week, an opportunity to…
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