Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
-
They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka
The tale of Schick's Bakery is one of 20th-century ingenuity and 21st-century capitalism
-
Why Hummus Is Key To Understanding Jewish Identity
To honor International Hummus Day, we revisit the Sabra Hummus factory, and learn some surprising truths about the origins of the fabled chickpea dish. Three blue cornflowers, stenciled on white ceramic — for the 18 years I spent growing up in the Philadelphia suburbs, that was my family’s emblem of hummus. The CorningWare dish, wide…
-
The Extraordinary Life Of Leopold Kozlowski, The Last Klezmer Of Galicia
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Leopold Kozlowski, the last active musician to have grown up playing traditional Jewish music in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust, died March 12 in Krakow at the age of 100. A world-renowned expert on Jewish music and a teacher who trained generations of klezmer musicians and Yiddish…
The Latest
-
Why The Rock ‘N’ Roll Faithful Are Flocking to The Met
To enter “Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll” — an exhibition currently running at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art through October 1 — you must first walk through a Met gallery devoted to Greek art from the 5th century BC. Jarring as it may be to hear the strains of Chuck Berry’s…
-
Nelson Mandela, Iconic Leader for Jews of South Africa — and World
On this day, 25 years ago, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president. In honor of that anniversary, we are revisiting Richard Goldstone’s essay that he wrote on the occasion of Mandela’s passing in 2013. Nelson Mandela has become a beloved icon for all of South Africa, and no less for its…
-
How Eli Valley’s Art Started An Anti-Semitism Scandal At Stanford
It began on Thursday, May 2, when members of the Stanford chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) posted flyers with cartoons by Eli Valley, a Jewish political cartoonist known for his provocative drawings of right-wing and Jewish figures. Soon after, Nazi-era propaganda appeared in freshman dorms. By May 7 one of The New…
-
At Riveting Auschwitz Exhibition, Troubling Lessons For Today’s America
Before I went to see “Auschwitz, Not Long Ago, Not Far Away,” a massive show at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, I had never set foot in a Holocaust exhibit. I didn’t want the inevitable manipulative clichés of exhibit design — dramatically lit artifacts set against wall-sized photo murals of emaciated people in striped pajamas…
-
Elizabeth Warren Wants To Scrub Sackler Name From Harvard Campus
Massachusetts Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has officially voiced support for removing the Sackler name from buildings at Harvard University. Warren, a former law professor at Harvard, told CNN of her position through an aide on Wednesday. The Sackler family are both the majority owners of Purdue Pharma, which manufactures the opioid OxyContin,…
-
He Translated One Of The Greatest Modern Yiddish Writers — And Didn’t Know
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Harold Rabinowitz likes to say that when he pulled into the driveway at the Beacon Inn in Brookline, Massachusetts, his life became like “something from the movies.” It was winter 1979. Rabinowitz, or Heshie, as he calls himself, was a pulpit rabbi in nearby Malden and a…
-
Film & TV Baby Archie Of Sussex Will Never Be Archie Andrews Of Riverdale
On the afternoon of May 8, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed the name of their baby on Instagram: Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. It’s a cute name, but I’m unable to accept it. While there’s a long tradition of British Archibalds, among them the many Scottish Lords of Douglas – the same ones that often…
-
I Didn’t Want To Fall For Israel — Confessions Of A Millennial Jew
I remember it like this: It was the turn of the century. There was an uprising. I had just learned how to read. It was an odd time to take children to Israel. The country had become a bloody backdrop against which cafes and buses exploded, flinging scraps of human flesh into the air. We…
-
For Mother’s Day — 9 Great Versions Of ‘My Yiddishe Mame’
What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to sit back and listen to “My Yiddishe Mame,” which long ago escaped the confines of the Jewish ghetto to become one of the world’s most popular songs about the love of a mother. The proof is in the wide range of singers of all backgrounds and…
Explore
Most Popular
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Think antisemitism was bad on TikTok? Wait till you see Rednote
-
Fast Forward Elon Musk makes Holocaust jokes after Netanyahu defends him as ‘great friend of Israel’
-
Fast Forward Jewish postwar epic ‘The Brutalist’ picks up 10 Oscar nominations, with ‘A Complete Unknown’ close behind
-
Yiddish װי די סאָװעטישע געהײם־פּאָליצײ האָט נאָכגעשפּירט די ייִדישע ליטעראַטןHow the Soviet secret police kept surveillance on Yiddish writers
נײַע אַרכיװאַלע דאָקומענטן אַנטפּלעקן אַ ים מיט מסירות, װאָס אײניקע ייִדישע ליטעראַטן האָבן געשריבן אױף זײערע קאָלעגעס.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
