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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Howard Zucker: The Anti- Anti-Vaxxer
As measles outbreaks mainly in New York’s Haredi communities raged, Dr. Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, met with Orthodox rabbis, visited religious summer camps and lobbied the legislature to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccination. Zucker, 60, who completed medical school at 22 and is also a lawyer qualified to argue before the Supreme…
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Forward 50 | Alma Hernandez: Intersectional politician
Before her election in November to the Arizona State Assembly at 25, Alma Hernandez had spent her years as an activist working on issues with direct connections to her background: immigration, health care and criminal justice. Hernandez’ mother was born in Nogales, Mexico, a border city through which countless immigrants have passed on their journey…
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Jeremy Borovitz: The Accidental Eyewitness
A New Jersey-bred rabbi’s son and Peace Corps member, Borovitz, 32, has long been drawn to Jewish Europe — it was the subject of his first conversation with Rebecca Blady, who became his wife, a rabbi as well, and his comrade in creating an irreverent, innovative outreach program called Base Berlin. Organizing largely through social…
The Latest
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Forward 50 | Josh and Benny Safdie: The hoop dreamers
We have the Safdies to thank for pushing Adam Sandler outside of his sophomoric comfort zone for a career-best performance as gambling-addicted jeweler Howard Ratner. Their newly released film, “Uncut Gems,” elevates the brothers’ already remarkable, neon- and desperation-drenched oeuvre by taking on a different side of New York: The glitzy, Glatt-certified row of Manhattan’s…
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Rachel Sumekh: The Supreme Swiper
As an undergraduate at UCLA in 2010, Rachel Sumekh and a few friends experimented with donating the excess funds on the meal plans to classmates who needed them. Now 28, Sumekh runs a national nonprofit, Swipe Out Hunger, which enlists students at 100 universities to donate their unused meal points to peers struggling to pay…
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Forward 50 | Catherine Cohen: The comedy chanteuse
Catherine Cohen, 28, leapt onto the comedy scene with musical monologues that pay jazzy, manic homage to anxiety, exhibitionism and her reproductive health. She hosts a weekly revue of young, diverse talent at Club Cumming. A Houston native, Cohen can now be seen beyond the crowded cabaret space, making scene-stealing appearances in HBO’s “High Maintenance”…
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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…
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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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