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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The suicide epidemic of World War II
“Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself:” The Mass Suicide of Ordinary Germans in 1945 By Florian Huber; translated by Imogen Taylor Little, Brown Spark, 304 pages, $29 For Nazi Germany’s shattered populace, the spring of 1945 brought the apocalypse. Allied bombs had leveled German cities, and the country’s armed forces were in retreat. The advance of…
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Everything “Unorthodox” gets wrong about being Orthodox
The recent Netflix series “Unorthodox” portrays a young Satmar woman, Esty Shapiro (Shira Haas), who decides to up and leave the Hasidic religious community in Brooklyn for a better, secular life in Berlin. Unsurprisingly, it displays the Satmar community, and especially her husband, Yaakov/Yanky (Amit Rahav), as rigid, patriarchal and hopeless. I found the series…
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When Gloria Steinem and Phyllis Schlafly battled for the American soul
“Mrs. America” begins with a cake. It’s a fluffy, gorgeous dome of meringue, left isolated and static on the screen before being shuttled into a crowded political fundraiser. At the fundraiser, the wives of the local elite put on a fashion show; backstage, they chat unhappily about the threat of “women’s libbers.” That housewives-versus-libbers clash…
The Latest
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Jenji Kohan to debut a ‘Social Distance’ anthology for Netflix
We may not have to wait for the end of the COVID-19 era to get an anthology series about it. Jenji Kohan, creator of “Orange Is the New Black” is developing a show called “Social Distance,” Deadline reported. The Netflix offering will be produced virtually for reasons of public health and will present narratives delving…
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Film & TV What to watch after ‘Unorthodox’
It’s been a month and we’re still talking about “Unorthodox.” Well, “talking” may be too tame a word. Debating, analyzing, nitpicking and making valid, important points about the series’ merits and potential harms. And while there’s much that remains to be said about the Netflix show (several million Jews, who knows how many opinions), there…
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Q&A: Booker Prize-winning translator Jessica Cohen on mental health and the IDF
For most Israelis, military service is as certain as death and taxes. But not everyone thrives in the army. Yair Assulin’s 2011 novel, “The Drive,” tracks an unnamed narrator’s inner monologue as he and his father travel to an army psychiatrist seeking a transfer. The young man, from a religious family, feels stifled and suicidal…
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You don’t know what freedom is until it’s gone
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.” We’re still accepting entries at [email protected] — you can find the entry guidelines here.The deadline is Friday, May 1. Today, we’re proud to publish this…
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The Forward investigates: Is Doron from ‘Fauda’ hot?
We need to talk about Doron’s body count. Not the many, many terrorists the antihero of “Fauda,” played with bracing intensity by the former special forces soldier Lior Raz, has dispatched over three seasons. I’m talking about Doron’s record with women. Against walls and kitchen counters, and in the war room within earshot of his…
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“Unorthodox” is a dangerous, misleading fairy tale of transitioning from the secular world
Before I left the Satmar Hasidic community in Kiryas Joel, I believed my journey would be similar to that of Esty in the Netflix miniseries “Unorthodox.” Like Esty, who is immediately welcomed into a circle of diverse and good looking Berlin musicians, I’d be easily embraced into the secular social milieu. Like Esty, who gets…
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Let’s talk about Unorthodox
The conversation on the Netflix series “Unorthodox” has been non-stop, even outside the Jewish community. Inside it, the discussion has been even more fiery, as the show is as controversial as it is popular; many take issue with the way it portrays the Jewish community, particularly its accuracies and inaccuracies regarding its portrayal of women…
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Israeli Independence Day goes virtual with ‘IsraPalooza’
Israeli Independence Day usually finds the team behind the podcast “Israel Story” trekking to venues throughout the United States with dancers, musicians and storytellers to perform a live version of their show. This Yom Ha’atzmaut, coronavirus has put a damper on traveling, but the show is making up for this setback by hosting an all-day,…
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