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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Nebuchadneezy? Kanye West To Debut Opera Based On The Jews’ Babylonian Captor
Mere weeks after releasing a gospel album featuring Kenny G, Kanye West is set to bring the world an opera about one of the Jewish people’s greatest tormentors. That’s right, folks: Kanye is going full Verdi and giving us his riff on Nebuchadnezzar II, the Babylonian king who, in the Book of Daniel, went mad…
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10 Ways To Pay For Your Future In Jewish Studies
Maimonides wrote his “Guide to the Perplexed” about ancient philosophy, but one of the most perplexing questions facing young Jewish scholars today is how to get through graduate school without going into debt. For our readers mulling careers in Judaic Studies, we’ve rounded up ten generous sources of funding and fellowships – so you can…
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7 Jewish Texts You Must Read — Profs Choose Their Favorites
Want to stump a professor? Just ask: “What’s the most important text on your syllabus?” The question posed a challenge to some who couldn’t bear to name just one. “It’s a tough one!” Samuel Hayim Brody, assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Kansas, wrote in an email. “I am…
The Latest
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Q & A: How Should Jewish Studies Address Anti-Semitism?
A year ago, Leah Garrett left Australia, where she had been a professor at Melbourne’s Monash University since 2008, to direct the newly-founded Jewish Studies Center at Hunter College. A year into the job, Garrett, the author of four books — including 2015 National Book Award Finalist “Young Lions: How Jewish Authors Reinvented the American…
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Why Jewish Studies Is More Relevant Than Ever
If you’re a Jewish studies scholar, you know a truth that many American Jews don’t understand. For years, synagogues have decried shrinking membership, and liberal Jewish denominations have reported decreasing engagement. Intermarriage is widely feared, as is a supposed decline in interest in Israel. “We have lots of negative narratives,” says Leonard Saxe, a professor…
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How Jewish Studies Prepared Me For My Career
I walked into JTS for the first time a little over four years ago. I had just completed my junior year of college and was conducting research for my senior thesis over the summer. As a joint major in the comparative study of religion and sociology at Harvard University, I was investigating the views of…
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How Jewish Studies Became A Central Part Of American Colleges
In American universities, the trajectory of Jewish studies has always been a product of the times, from the Hebrew learning of prospective clergy in the colonial era, to today’s vibrant intersectional field for grads and undergrads. As Judith R. Baskin, the Philip H. Knight Professor Emerita in Humanities at the University of Oregon, wrote in…
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Updated: All About Taylor Swift’s Feud With Record Exec Scooter Braun
This is not a “Love Story.” Taylor Swift has alleged that her former label manager Scott Borchetta and his business partner Scooter Braun are keeping her from what would be a career high. Their company has denied the charges and entered the fray with allegations of their own. But this whole thing keeps getting wilder,…
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Trump’s Anti-Semitic Canard Honks At Adam Schiff
On Wednesday, House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff conducted the first public impeachment hearing on President Donald Trump with poise, conviction and — certainly — strength. Schiff duly addressed Republicans’ procedural challenges, and refused to be ruffled by, among other canards, his counterpart, ranking member Devin Nunes’s new claim that Democrats were trying to obtain nude…
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After Polish Government Complaint, Netflix To Amend Concentration Camp Maps
Following public complaints from the Polish government, Netflix will add explanatory notes to World War II-era maps showing the location of concentration camps used in its documentary series “The Devil Next Door.” The move by the streaming giant, reported by The New York Times, follows a letter of complaint from Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Marawiecki…
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Rick Ludwin, NBC Exec Who Gave ‘Seinfeld’ A Shot, Dies At 71
When the history books are written (and some of them already have been), the record will show that it took a gentile to make “Seinfeld” a reality. Rick Ludwin, the NBC executive who was the so-called Show About Nothing’s biggest cheerleader at the network, died Sunday of organ failure at a Los Angeles hospital, The…
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