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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Dylan’s latest album comes at a time when we need it most
The Forward, a Jewish publication, asks me a question: “Is ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ Bob Dylan’s best album since “Blood on the Tracks?” As a Jew, I can imagine only one possible answer: “yes and no.” Musically, it’s not even close. “Desire” has more beautiful melodies, tighter lyrics and far better hooks. I also think,…
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The 16 customers you’ll meet at the Zabar’s lox counter
Outside, the sun peeks out over the high condo buildings and blazes across 80th Street into the windows of Zabar’s. New Yorkers are scurrying up and down Broadway. Mommies stroll by with adorable babies on their backs or in their strollers. When I’m at the window, I wave at the passing kids. Some wave back;…
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50 shades of unconditional longing in a tale of erotic obsession
22 Minutes of Unconditional Love By Daphne Merkin Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 238 pages, $26 In her self-revelatory nonfiction, Daphne Merkin has written memorably about her bouts of depression and her sexual fixation on spanking. Her latest novel, “22 Minutes of Unconditional Love,” tries to meld two traditions: the erotic tale of female submission and…
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The extraordinary artistic devotion of Ida Haendel
She was never quite as famous as the men: Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Jascha Heifetz. But if you heard Ida Haendel play violin once, you knew her tone anywhere: the shuddery, overwhelming pointedness she gave to any piece of music. Her music was beautiful, and unsparing. If you didn’t want to weep, you were better…
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Over 120 Neo-Nazi band pages found active on Facebook
Neo-Nazi rockers with swastika tattoos and Insane Clown Posse-like makeup. Album art showing the gates of Auschwitz. Songs longing for a “pure f—ing genocide.” For years, Facebook has allowed bands centered on this content a home on their platform — but now the social media giant is racing to remove them. An investigation by Al…
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2 Forward writers win Excellence in Feature Journalism awards
The Society for Features Journalism, which celebrates innovation in lifestyle, arts and entertainment journalism, recognized the diverse work of two Forward writers at its 2020 Excellence in Features Awards. Contributing Art Critic Jackson Arn won second place in the Arts & Entertainment Commentary Portfolio category for his incisive (but considered) review of Daniel Mendelsohn’s essay…
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Eagles owner announces Hitler doc after DeSean Jackson ‘Hitler’ scandal
A surprise announcement by the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles poses a compelling question about how to correct anti-Semitic ignorance: Can you fight Hitler with Hitler? The football team is now weighing the level of punishment appropriate for wide receiver DeSean Jackson, who praised anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and shared quotes dubiously…
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Sacha Baron Cohen pranked Giuliani — and Giuliani called the cops
When he’s not crusading against Facebook, Sacha Baron Cohen appears to be busy working on a new season of his Showtime series “Who Is America?” His latest mark? America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, whom Baron Cohen surprised in a lace bathing suit, prompting Giuliani to alert the police. Giuliani said he didn’t know it was Baron…
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If this Joe Shapiro didn’t help Trump cheat on the SATs — did a different one?
Will the real Joe Shapiro please stand up? The Trump White House denies the charge, bundled in a forthcoming family tell-all, that the president paid a ringer named Joe Shapiro to sit for his SATs. Now, the widow of one Joe Shapiro identified as Trump’s proxy is insisting he had no hand in helping the…
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In Nazi-era Austria, he needed a father; he found Sigmund Freud
Nikolaus Leytner’s “The Tobacconist,” is one of the more striking and nuanced movies to deal with the rise of Nazism. Set in Vienna in the 30’s, and based on Robert Seethaller’s 2017 best-selling novel, it’s a coming of age tale that recounts the experiences of Franz (Simon Morze), a horny 17-year-old whose personal, political and…
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How did we forget Lucy Dawidowicz?
“The War Against the Jews,” that remarkably concise phrase denoting the immensity of the Holocaust, entered common parlance with the publication of Lucy S. Dawidowicz’s pioneering study, “The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945” in 1975. The book — which is still in print — is a popular history of both Nazi anti-Semitism and the Jewish…
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Culture I come from a long line of Jewish Bundists. Now, Molly Crabapple is part of our family.
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Opinion American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt
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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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Yiddish װאָס קען מען זיך אָפּלערנען פֿון מאָלי קראַבעפּלס בוך װעגן „בונד“?What can we learn from Molly Crabapple’s book about the Bund?
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט