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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Forward 50 | Chaya Porus Palevsky: Lithuanian partisan hero
On display at the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s new Auschwitz exhibit is a hand-embroidered floral blouse Chaya Palevsky made for her older sister Rachel Porus, a nurse, who kept many people alive in the Švenčionys ghetto. When the family was put on a train, bound, they believed, for Kaunas, Chaya made a split-second decision to…
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Forward 50 | Adam Berman: The urban farmer
Adam Berman made made his first foray into community organizing as a teenager, by starting an environmental club at school. Years later, while directing a Jewish retreat center in Connecticut, he started a program around green living and called it Adamah, the Hebrew word for “earth.” In 2010, he moved to Berkeley and opened Urban…
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Forward 50 | Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman: Refugee, war hero, patriot
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman may not be particularly telegenic. Of the witnesses called before the House Intelligence Committee in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump’s alleged quid pro quo with Ukraine, Vindman, 44, certainly could not be accused of bringing the pizzazz. That only made his testimony — of perceived abuses about which he could…
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Jamie Margolin: The Teenager Who Would Be President
Teenage activists are something of a phenomenon in recent years: David Hogg on guns, Greta Thunberg on climate change, Mari Copeny on the Flint water crisis. Then there is Margolin, who is 18 and spent the year appearing at dozens of conferences around the world, all while writing a book, passing her classes and applying…
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Joseph Cedar: The Director Of Complexity
The HBO miniseries “Our Boys” dramatized the story of the brutal 2014 murder of the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which, following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, helped build momentum toward the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. The series was co-directed by Cedar, 51, an American-born Israeli filmmaker; Hagai Levi, an Israeli television creator;…
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Abby Stein: The Barrier Breaker
Abby Stein’s memoir “Becoming Eve,” about her life and transition, was released in November, but she had been clearing her throat for that text for years. After coming out as trans on her blog in 2015, Stein established a Trans Meet-Up with Eshel, a LGBTQ nonprofit for Orthodox Jews. This year, Stein, 28, was part…
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Forward 50 | Rachel Chavkin: Reinventor Of The Broadway Musical
If, in the years since “Hamilton,” you’ve heard buzz about a Broadway show of thrilling originality, chances are it was directed by Rachel Chavkin. Chavkin, the director responsible for “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812,” which debuted on Broadway in 2016, and “Hadestown,” which opened on the Great White Way this spring, has…
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Forward 50 | Oren Segal: The hate tracker
It’s a scene that’s as impressive as it is depressing: Whenever an extremist commits violence, Oren Segal, 45, and his team at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism quickly identify the perpetrator’s ideology and social-media history. Sometimes, they’re even quicker than the extremists: Their monitoring of extremists’ online activities has led to at least one…
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Yavilah McCoy: A Force For Inclusion
When the Women’s March expanded its steering committee as part of a response to allegations of anti-Semitism, Yavilah McCoy was one of three Jews who joined. On the morning of this year’s rally in January, McCoy opened her speech with a ringing “Shabbat Shalom.” Later, she told Essence magazine that for Jewish women of color,…
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Gabe Fleisher: The Boy Who Scooped Bill De Blasio
One Wednesday in May after a school exam, Gabe Fleisher tripped across a Facebook event from a county Democratic Party page in Iowa that said Sioux City was the first stop on Bill de Blasio’s “Presidential announcement tour.” This was interesting — because de Blasio had not yet announced he was actually running. So Fleisher,…
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Forward 50 | Max Kellerman: The pundit of sports passion
Nearly 17 years ago, the Forward’s Rukhl Schaechter wrote a short, and endearing, portrait of Max Kellerman, who at the time was not yet 30 years old but was already becoming widely known as a sports commentator on ESPN. Kellerman, it turned out, had gone to Yiddish classes every Saturday with his three brothers while…
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