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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Dr. Margot Kushel: Warrior For The Homeless
Dr. Margot Kushel is one of the nation’s leading researchers into geriatric homelessness, she approaches the topic with her Jewish values in mind. In 2006, Kushel co-wrote the first study on the issue, discovering that the average age of the homeless population in the United States was in the mid-50s. Since then, Kushel, who is…
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Sarah Hurwitz: Speechwriter for Judaism
What are Democrats to do in the Trump era? Sarah Hurwitz, who spent seven years as Michelle Obama’s chief speechwriter after doing the same for President Obama and candidate Hillary Clinton, decided to write for herself. Her book, “Here All Along: Finding Meaning, Spirituality, and a Deeper Connection to Life — in Judaism,” was published…
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Moishe Ferencz: Supermarket Widower
Moishe Ferencz opened JC Kosher Supermarket on Martin Luther King Drive in 2017 after he and his wife, Mindy, moved from Brooklyn searching for more financial stability and space for their three children. Moishe and Mindy ran a successful business together, putting out hot kugel and cholent for their customers each Thursday and selling at…
The Latest
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Hanukkah Then And Now: In Search Of The Historic Latke
What can a Jewish cookbook from 1946 tell us about the 21st-century Jewish-American experience? Liza Schoenfein, the Forward’s senior food writer, and Jane Ziegelman, a culinary historian, took our signature collection of Yiddish recipes off the shelf and found a direct line from the balaboostas of yore to the kitchens of today. A Latke Origin…
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I Wanted To Know The Real Etgar Keret. So I Took Him To A Clowning Class.
“I think all of us love this work because we see the humanity involved. We see the sweep.” Jean Taylor, an instructor in theatrical clowning with the Barrow Group, paced a few steps in a small, white-walled studio a few blocks from Times Square while Israeli short story writer Etgar Keret and I sat on…
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Every American Hanukkah Special, Movie And TV Episode Worth Knowing About
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Hanukkah’s profile has grown over the years due to its proximity to Christmas. It’s also true that because of this nearness, it is the Jewish holiday the most Christians are familiar with. And yet, while Jews are said to control the entertainment industry, we’ve made our greatest festive…
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UNESCO Cuts Ties With Belgian Parade Over Anti-Semitic Float
Following months of outrage over an anti-Semitic float included in a popular Belgian carnival, UNESCO has severed ties with the festival, which the cultural arm of the U.N. added to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010. In March, the Aalst Carnival included a parade float featuring Jews with hooked noses and side-curls perched atop…
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‘Uncut Gems’ Gives American Jews A New, Unflattering Mascot – And It’s A Triumph
If you see Josh and Benny Safdie’s “Uncut Gems” when it opens on Christmas Day, you will witness an under-explored facet of Jewish life. As the lights go down and Adam Sandler springs to frenetic life as protagonist Howard Ratner, a New York Diamond District sleaze, you might muse as to why it took so…
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Music The Meteoric Rise Of The A Capella Hanukkah Video — How A Holiday Force Awakened
Star Wars fans have been eagerly awaiting “The Rise of Skywalker,” the final film in a nine-part saga scheduled to be released on December 20. Another set of fans — perhaps smaller in number but nothing to scoff at — have been anticipating an entirely different kind of production that pops up around this time…
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One For Each Night: A Guide To Hanukkah A Capella Videos
With nearly a decade’s worth of a capella Hanukkah music videos, where do you even begin? Here are a few of the best to get you started — one (or two) for each night. On the first night, watch “Candlelight” (2010), the Maccabeats’ parody of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” that started it all. On the second…
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January 26: Los Angeles: Z3 Project Conference
The Forward will represent at the Z3 Project in Los Angeles on Sunday, January 26, where editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren will lead a panel and opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon will be a panelist on another. Z3, located this year at the Stephen Wise Temple, aims to promote Zionism and discuss its changing landscape, as well as…
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