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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How Elizabeth Wurtzel, ‘Prozac Nation’ author and breast cancer advocate, shaped America
Elizabeth Wurtzel, whose bracingly candid memoirs brought attention to the deeply-rooted problems of addiction and depression in America, died in a Manhattan hospital on January 7. She was 52 years old. Wurtzel died as a result of leptomeningeal disease, a complication that occurs after cancer spreads to cerebrospinal fluid, her husband, Jim Freed, told The…
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What ‘The Good Place’ says about Jewish ethics
This article contains spoilers for all four seasons of NBC’s “The Good Place.” Like many things in Judaism, notions of the afterlife can seem to be a jumble of competing interpretations. There’s no consensus as to what the life-to-come may look like, but one suggestion of heaven is the yeshiva shel ma’ala — or the…
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As Harvey Weinstein’s criminal trial begins in New York, new assault charges emerge in LA
On Monday, soon after a walker-bound Harvey Weinstein limped into New York’s State Supreme Court in Manhattan for the preliminary steps in his first criminal trial, the movie mogul was hit with new rape and sexual assault charges in California. Los Angeles prosecutors released a criminal complaint with new charges against Weinstein made by two…
The Latest
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Harvey Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault trial begins
(JTA) — Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein arrived at a New York court on Monday for the start of his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault. Weinstein used a walker due to recent back surgery as he entered the courthouse, according to reports. Jury selection in the case is scheduled to begin this week….
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For Israeli comics, English is the next frontier
TEL AVIV, Israel _ With his motormouth monologues and poignant punchlines about the absurdities of Israeli life, Shahar Hason has established himself as one of the country’s most popular stand-up comics. But when he drops his native Hebrew for the risky gambit of entertaining crowds in English, the words sometimes escape him. “People always tell…
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The Golden Globes were a massive bummer
Ah, the Golden Globes. The Oscars’s boozy, antic European cousin. It seems like each year the Hollywood Foreign Press-hosted event reflects a larger conversation around race, gender and politics — but often with a lag. When Ricky Gervais hosts, there is, along with an air of celebrity ego-slashing, there’s often a literal delay to mute…
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Something old, something blue: Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody’ enters the public domain
The theme to Manhattan — both the borough and the film — has entered the public domain. George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” penned in 1924, for bandleader Paul Whiteman, entered the creative commons as of January 1, 2020. (2020 marks only the second year since 1999 that new works have become available in the US,…
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Why we have to keep talking about Monsey — a letter from my hometown
On Friday in Monsey, I went with my youngest relatives to one of the giant kosher markets and bought a hot latke to eat right there, on the spot. Monsey, where I grew up, is the kind of place where that is possible; the latke stand had signs in four languages — Yiddish, Hebrew, English…
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Meet the comics bringing Jews and Muslims together through stand-up
In April of 2019, comedian Eitan Levine held a five-day comedy festival at his New York apartment. Yeganeh Mafaher was part of a diverse slate of comics who graced Levine’s living room with her set, which explores — among other topics — being Iranian-American and looking like Anne Frank. The two had not met before…
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For Isaac Asimov, Galactic Talmudist, on his 100th birthday
Editor’s Note: Isaac Asimov, whose 100th birthday falls on January 2, 2020, is one of very few popular authors whose published works far exceed their number of years on earth. By some counts, Asimov’s books nearly come to 500. A polymath of remarkable output, the writer, chemist and professor of biochemistry, who died in 1992…
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Film & TV 1 million Israelis tune in for season 3 of ‘Fauda’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The first episode of the third season of the hit Israeli drama “Fauda” was viewed by Israelis about 1 million times in the 48 hours after it first aired. The Israeli drama, in Hebrew and Arabic, received a 12.6 percent share of viewers during its debut on Thursday night, according to a…
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