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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After WWI, Jewish Warsaw crumbled; in my father’s memories, it lived on
I’ve always been proud that my parents were born in Europe — my father in Poland, my mother in Russia. When I was a child, I thought it exotic. As I got older, I liked that it gave me a closer connection to my European roots, compared to most American Jews of my generation whose…
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Why Paul Rudd’s coronavirus PSA for Millennials makes me feel ancient
For years our greatest minds have puzzled over a fundamental paradox of postmodern comedy: Is it possible to be so woefully, self-awarely out-of-touch that you end up on the right side of cool? The conceit was tested yet again in a newly-released COVID-19 PSA tweeted by Pandemic Daddy and Auschwitz thirst-trapper Governor Andrew Cuomo, featuring…
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Weird, shapeless, claustrophobic, disjointed, solipsistic — the newest film from guess who?
Many years before he became the most famous niche, surrealist, seriocomic writer-director in Hollywood, Charlie Kaufman got himself stuck in a tight space. A closet, perhaps, or a hole he was too little to crawl out of. Wherever it was, he was trapped there for a long time, or at least long enough to spark…
The Latest
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‘The Jewish Enquirer’ gives Brits a ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ of their own
When “The Jewish Enquirer” debuted on Amazon in March of this year, its chosen world of Jewish reportage was on the eve of a major disruption. The timing couldn’t have been better — or, perhaps, worse. The sitcom, which follows freelance reporter Paul Green’s Larry Davidian peregrinations through North London, arrived just before Britain’s leading…
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Profiting from genocide, Disney’s ‘Mulan’ ignores lessons from the Holocaust
In 1944, the Theresienstadt concentration camp underwent a beautification. Living quarters improved. Gardens appeared. A school was established. When representatives of the Danish and International Red Cross came to inspect the camp — a step the Nazis believed essential to securing Denmark and Sweden’s continued compliance — they were pleased. Maurice Rossel, the ICRC’s representative,…
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Would Tevye vote for Trump or Biden? 25 fictional Jews weigh in.
The 2020 voter faces the ballot box during a season of unprecedented challenges — not least of which is the act of voting itself. In addition to the usual gerrymandering and voter suppression, a nationwide pandemic is poised to overwhelm an underfunded postal service. As if that weren’t enough, the president, repeating long-debunked claims of…
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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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‘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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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…
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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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