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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Books
An Israeli-American author’s debut brings the road trip novel back to life
There may be no better way of handling a death in the family, at least in the American imagination, than hopping in the car and driving somewhere — anywhere. A road trip, especially to some meaningful destination, can be a gesture of respect for the mourned or a step towards renewal for the mourner. It’s…
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A right-wing group is pranked by Sacha Baron Cohen — again
Once again proving the adage, often attributed to H.L. Mencken, that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people, Sacha Baron Cohen resurfaced on Saturday June 27, spending his Shabbos at a “March for our Rights” rally in Olympia, Wash. Dressed like a Halloween scarecrow in a pair or overalls, and…
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I have delved deep into the sad, socially distant world of Jewish celebrity cameos — I may never recover
Never in the history of entertainment have we had so much intimate access to the stars. We know what’s on their bookshelves. We’ve seen them in bathrobes and minimal makeup. We’ve seen them vulnerable in misguided attempts to bring light into the world. And, on a little app called Cameo, for a nominal or ludicrous…
The Latest
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Q&Archives: Telling old stories in new ways with Chana Pollack
This piece originally appeared on the Urban Archivist. Newspaper collections are not always the most impartial historical documents, but they provide a unique account of past events, both important and mundane, as primary resources. Since the vast majority of our partners’ collections are architecturally-focused, the two documentary-style newspaper collections that are available on our platform…
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‘Unorthodox’ could use some Hasidic sex lessons — and a few interior decorating tips too
Where does one start with “Unorthodox?” With the fake shtreimels which would hardly satisfy a 9-year old Hasidic boy dressing up for Purim? With the grating accents one would struggle to place west of the Vistula, if not the Volga? The home furnishings that may have been the deal during the Weimar years or Eisenhower’s…
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The oldest customer at Zabar’s lox counter — the tale of the 105-year-old man
Zabar’s is a slice of life. People scurry from room to room, section to section, walking, looking, seeing, listening, deciding, talking, thinking, tasting. Big people, little people, fat, skinny, tall, short, young and old. They’re all here. I’m watching them. Some of them are watching me. There are as many stories here as there are…
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Everything you need to know about Anne Frank
Editor’s note: This article, originally published on July 9, 2019, has been republished in honor of the anniversary of the first publication of Anne Frank’s “Diary of a Young Girl” on June 25, 1947. Anne Frank: You know her name, but do you know her story? Frank has become such a universal political and cultural…
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Roseanne Barr returns with a new Trump conspiracy theory
It feels like a century has passed since Roseanne Barr blamed a racist Twitter tirade on Ambien. Now, the comedian is back to send an altogether different — if no less puzzling — message about the leader of the free world. In a video posted to Twitter, Barr, from her home, launched into a one-minute…
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Absolutely every anti-Semitic thing Mel Gibson has ever said
That we know of
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‘The Politician,’ season two: A voice of a generation without a voice of his own
Season two of Netflix’s “The Politician” belongs, like a Ralph Lauren cologne ad or a Nancy Meyers film, to the culturally confused yet well-worn aesthetic of WASPy Jewishness. And somehow, even after all the decades of Jews having country clubs and garden parties of their own, it still feels transgressive. As Payton Hobart (Ben Platt),…
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St. Louis was named after an anti-Semitic crusader. Should its name be changed?
Some time after King Louis IX returned to France from his first Crusade in 1254, an anonymous French Jew wrote a letter to the king, who would become the only French monarch to ever be canonized in the Catholic Church. The letter, which was never sent, outlined the painful impact of a series of official…
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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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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