Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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How my father’s photos changed a changing world
My father, Arthur Rothstein, was a social documentary photographer. In the Jewish tradition of tikkun olam, he used his camera to bring attention to problems in society, taking social action in the pursuit of social justice, doing what he could to help repair the world. His parents had been forced from their homes in Europe…
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As coronavirus fears escalate, Broadway goes affordable
The spread of coronavirus has sent financial markets into turmoil, closed Harvard University and emptied supermarket shelves of surgical masks and hand sanitizer. It’s also forced Broadway to do something unprecedented: Sell reasonably-priced tickets. Scott Rudin, one of Broadway’s biggest producers, has slashed the price of all remaining tickets for his five Broadway shows to…
The Latest
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What to watch if you’re quarantined with coronavirus
With coronavirus cases on the rise and over 2,000 people in quarantine in New York City alone, it’s looking increasingly likely that many of us will have to spend some quality time at home in the next few weeks. Wondering how not to go crazy while eating canned goods in your closet-sized bedroom? The answer,…
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Art The radical transformation of Madame D’Ora
Can an art show be fascinating without containing a single truly fascinating artwork? The Dora Kallmus exhibit at the Neue Galerie in Manhattan is full of competent, uneccentric photographs of eccentric geniuses from the early 20th century: Gustav Klimt, Colette, Josephine Baker, Picasso. Just as the show seems to be running out of famous faces,…
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When Max von Sydow entertained Holocaust survivors
Actor Max von Sydow was not Jewish or German, and yet, through much of his English-language film career he played Holocaust survivors or Nazis. A favorite of Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish performer, who died March 8 at the age of 90, was a presence in film from his time in “The Seventh Seal” and “The…
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What does the Bible say about quarantine?
In recent weeks, the Jewish community has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus. The good news is, we’re old hands at dealing with quarantines. Our history with the practice of self-isolation began during our trip out of Egypt to the Promised Land, where Moses was our first public health official. In Leviticus, Moses, giving…
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Film & TV Spock’s Jewish-Vulcan gesture is the way we should greet each other today
No handshakes. No Italian abbracci (hugs) and certainly no French bises (kisses on the cheek). Be sure to keep your distance from others. As the novel coronavirus continues ravaging the planet, actor George Takei, who rose to fame playing Sulu on “Star Trek,” has an idea for an acceptable greeting that won’t spread the deadly…
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Woody Allen memoir canceled after publisher’s staff walk out in protest
Updated, 4:26 pm After approximately 75 staff members of the staff at Hachette Book Group staged a walk-out protest on Thursday, the publisher has canceled its plans to publish Woody Allen’s memoir “Apropos of Nothing.” The news was broken by Publishers Weekly. BREAKING: In a statement, Hachette Book Group has announced that it will not…
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How Dorothea Lange invented the American West
There is no American West without state-funded photography. I don’t mean the Old West of cowboys and wagon trails but the West as it shows up in today’s discourse: a dead heartland preserved in sepia like a body in formaldehyde, a place both pre-industrial and past its prime, whose glory can only be felt as…
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How Jewish immigrants helped build Montana
When the 1860s Montana gold rush ended, the Jews of the territory were just getting started. “The thing about gold towns is that they come and go,” said Paul Kingsford, a native Englishman who now lives in Missoula, Mont. “And so they built these wooden buildings downtown, because they knew there was no point —…
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The impoverished immigrant who married an American prince — and became a socialist hero
Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes By Adam Hochschild Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 320 pages, $30 It’s tempting to think, as the 2020 election unfolds, that we’re living through the great American confrontation of capitalism and socialism. Has there ever been a figure who more compellingly captured…
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News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaida in address to Republican officials
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Opinion Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians
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News A Jewish farmer drove 600 miles to rescue a century-old synagogue. Now he’s building a new one in a cornfield.
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Culture I ranked the NYC mayoral candidates exclusively based on their bagel orders
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Fast Forward Israel reportedly is preparing for an imminent Iran strike despite Trump’s prior admonitions
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News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: ייִדישע באַפֿעלקערונג איבער דער וועלט כּמעט 15 מיליאָן נפֿשותTidbits: Jewish world population is nearly 15 million
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Fast Forward Federal judge orders Mahmoud Khalil to be released by Friday on $1 bond
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