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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Wh-why was Lin-Manuel Miranda wearing a Star of David in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’?
Passion plays, which depict the trial and death of Jesus, have a nasty history. The Oberammergau Passion Play in Germany, for example, was famously propped up by the Nazis for its anti-Semitic caricatures of scheming priests. More recently, Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” renewed charges of deicide against the Jewish people. But the…
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‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Mrs. Maisel’ lead a very Jewish Emmy outing for 2020
With 26 nominations, HBO’s “Watchmen,” a prescient superhero meditation on police violence and race in America, leads the field for the 2020 Emmys. It’s a mixed field, with a lot of recognition for actors of color and something at least approaching parity for male and female directors – though the writing categories are woefully lopsided….
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The wonderful, whimsical, interfaith family of the Muppets
In August of 1960, a young man, his wife and their eight-week-old daughter drove into Detroit in a secondhand Rolls Royce. In a moment of mischief, the man asked his friend who was tagging along to take the wheel and drive him to the center of the Motor City. There, he cracked the moonroof and…
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For Black British Jews, a walkout doesn’t solve Twitter’s anti-Semitism problem
Following a 48-hour anti-Semitic tirade from the UK musical artist Wiley, many British Jews are now participating in a two-day online walkout from Twitter under the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate. But for some Black British Jews, caught in the middle, the boycott falls short and points to larger challenges. “Wiley has more followers than there are Jews…
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Remembering Regis Philbin’s ‘Bonkos’ time on ‘Seinfeld’
“I will never forget that silence, nor will I ever get over it,” Regis Philbin wrote in his 2011 memoir “How I Got This Way.” The moment, as Philbin describes it, was gutting. And to think it was all because of a show about nothing. Philbin, a talk show staple who began his on-camera career…
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In ‘Gone With the Wind,’ a complicated Jewish subtext
Editor’s note: Olivia de Havilland, the last surviving star of “Gone with the Wind” died July 26, 2020 at the age of 104. In the film, she played Melanie Hamilton, the prototypical Southern belle sister-in-law of Scarletther closest friend. In honor of Ms. de Havilland’s long career in entertainment, we’re republishing a piece from earlier…
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On Bugs Bunny’s 80th birthday, how Jewish is that wascally wabbit anyway?
As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the release of “A Wild Hare,” the first animated short starring Bugs Bunny, the question arises: How Jewish was the sassy, anti-authoritarian rabbit? Since 1940, Jewish audiences have taken Bugs to their heart for his anarchic energy in lightning-fast short films of concentrated intensity and visual quality, especially…
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On Mick Jagger’s 77th birthday, the secret Jewish history of the Rolling Stones
In 2015, when The Rolling Stones took the stage at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv, that event represented more than just the world’s greatest and longest-running rock band’s first concert in Israel. It also marked one small victory in the war against a rock ’n’ roll boycott of Israel being waged by some English rockers, mostly…
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As Frog and Toad turn 50, a look at their most mortifying story
I recall with distinct mortification Toad’s striped, singlet bathing suit. Like so many early readers, I was in the cubbyholed realm of an elementary school classroom when I first encountered Arnold Lobel’s “Frog and Toad” books, the first of which was released 50 years ago this August. Their whimsical bucolic watercolors struck me then (or…
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What’s the best New York Jewish book of all time?
Literary cities are many, but there’s only one New York. Now, philanthropists Bradley Tusk and Howard Wolfson are acknowledging that fact with a new award for books set in or about the Big Apple, which will come complete with a $50,000 prize. The news of the Gotham Book Prize arrives at a time when the…
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Release of Wes Anderson’s ‘most Jewish film’ delayed indefinitely
It looks like fans will have to wait a little longer for the movie that critics — a.k.a. us — have dubbed Wes Anderson’s “most Jewish film to date.” Yes, the release date of the director’s 10th film, “The French Dispatch,” a capital-W Whimsical foray into the fictional French city of “Ennui-sur-Blasé,” has been postponed yet again….
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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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