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
-
WATCH: 300 musicians perform ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ to lift socially-distanced spirits
The key to the success of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II lies in how well their music works outside of its original context. It’s easy to forget — or to not even not know — the South Pacific setting of “Some Enchanted Evening” or to adapt “My Favorite Things” into a Christmas song or…
-
Your questions about “Unorthodox” and leaving Hasidic communities, answered
More than 2,000 of you joined our virtual conversation last week titled “Unorthodox: Reality vs. Fiction.” Alexa Karolinski, one of the creators of the blockbuster Netflix hit, was joined by our Yiddish editor, Rukhl Schaechter, and three people who, like the four-part series’ title character, Esty, had left Haredi communities: Chavie Weisberger of Footsteps, a…
-
Your guide to everything Jewish about ‘Star Wars’
The temporally distant and far-flung galaxy of “Star Wars” is, like the Torah, a text touched by many hands over the years. While creator George Lucas’ initial narrative impulse — relying on dull arcana like the “Journal of the Whills” — was Midrashic, the many Jews who worked on the script, and eventually assumed the…
The Latest
-
Sometimes freedom means leaving America behind
Editor’s Note: The Forward is featuring essays, poems and short stories written for our Young Writers Contest. Today’s entry was written by Cienna Olenick, a student at the College International in Fontainebleau, France. You can find more work from our young writers here. “Est-ce que vous etes demi-pensionnaire ou externe?” our teacher asked. The blank…
-
Think the sex in ‘Unorthodox’ was inaccurate? Check your male privilege
Eli Spitzer’s article “No, the way sex is portrayed in “Unorthodox” is not accurate — it’s a hateful libel” serves as both title and introduction to the screed leveled against the film-makers of “Unorthodox,” the four-episode Netflix series based in part on the memoir of the same name by Deborah Feldman. Feldman is a woman…
-
Pandemics have always incited anti-Semitism. Here’s the history you need to know.
Every pandemic begins with a terrifying moment in which it seems impossible to explain what is happening. Often, whoever is considered the “other” in society is blamed, a scapegoating we see happening here and now. President Trump’s administration has drawn criticism for periodically insisting on calling the coronavirus “the Chinese virus,” a move many see…
-
WATCH NOW: Yihye Tov: A conversation/concert with David Broza
Watch here. Written with Yonatan Geffen in 1977, Broza’s anthem “Yihye Tov” (Things Will Be Better) has never been more resonant. Jodi Rudoren, Forward editor-in-chief, talks with the famed Israeli singer-songwriter about his life in quarantine in New York City; his just-released instrumental album of Spanish guitar, En Casa Limón; and the prospect of Tu…
-
Why we must remember the martyrs of Kent State
This week marks the 45th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. 15 years ago, I visited Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Hanoi and Da Nang and for that brief period of time, got to know some people from the reunited country. It’s funny. Wars are started by governments, not people — I spoke…
-
Why Mort Drucker mattered
If Andy Warhol was a great artist, so was Mort Drucker, the MAD Magazine cartoonist who died last month at the age of 91. Like Warhol, Drucker was a prolific draftsman with an unmistakable line (as thin and brisk as Warhol’s was fat and blotted). His great themes were the gleaming Warholian trinity of Hollywood,…
-
Freedom — a short story
Editor’s Note: The Forward’s Youth Writing Contest is asking middle and high school students to submit essays, short stories and poems on the topic “What It Means To Be Free.” Our deadline has passed, but before we announce or winners, we’re continuing to publish the work of our young writers. Today, we’re proud to publish…
-
WATCH NOW: Rob Eshman on ‘Inside the Rabbi’s Study’
National Editor, Rob Eshman joins an episode of Valley Beth Shalom’s ‘Inside the Rabbi’s Study’, an exclusive interview series with prominent clergy and educators in the LA Jewish community. Rabbi Ed Feinstein and Eshman discuss his new role and how he’s expanding The Forward’s national and international presence. Watch the interview here.
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
- 2
Antisemitism Decoded The antisemites are enjoying themselves
- 3
Fast Forward UCLA student government condemns campus Hillel for hosting former hostage
- 4
Film & TV Remembering Siskel and Ebert’s great debate: Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward 200+ Bnei Menashe immigrate to Israel from India, the first to make the journey in years
-
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
-
Sports Today’s American Jews finally have their era’s Sandy Koufax
-
Fast Forward Netanyahu reveals prostate cancer treatment, says he hid diagnosis during Iran war