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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When Max von Sydow entertained Holocaust survivors
Actor Max von Sydow was not Jewish or German, and yet, through much of his English-language film career he played Holocaust survivors or Nazis. A favorite of Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish performer, who died March 8 at the age of 90, was a presence in film from his time in “The Seventh Seal” and “The…
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What does the Bible say about quarantine?
In recent weeks, the Jewish community has been hit hard by the novel coronavirus. The good news is, we’re old hands at dealing with quarantines. Our history with the practice of self-isolation began during our trip out of Egypt to the Promised Land, where Moses was our first public health official. In Leviticus, Moses, giving…
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Film & TV Spock’s Jewish-Vulcan gesture is the way we should greet each other today
No handshakes. No Italian abbracci (hugs) and certainly no French bises (kisses on the cheek). Be sure to keep your distance from others. As the novel coronavirus continues ravaging the planet, actor George Takei, who rose to fame playing Sulu on “Star Trek,” has an idea for an acceptable greeting that won’t spread the deadly…
The Latest
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Woody Allen memoir canceled after publisher’s staff walk out in protest
Updated, 4:26 pm After approximately 75 staff members of the staff at Hachette Book Group staged a walk-out protest on Thursday, the publisher has canceled its plans to publish Woody Allen’s memoir “Apropos of Nothing.” The news was broken by Publishers Weekly. BREAKING: In a statement, Hachette Book Group has announced that it will not…
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How Dorothea Lange invented the American West
There is no American West without state-funded photography. I don’t mean the Old West of cowboys and wagon trails but the West as it shows up in today’s discourse: a dead heartland preserved in sepia like a body in formaldehyde, a place both pre-industrial and past its prime, whose glory can only be felt as…
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How Jewish immigrants helped build Montana
When the 1860s Montana gold rush ended, the Jews of the territory were just getting started. “The thing about gold towns is that they come and go,” said Paul Kingsford, a native Englishman who now lives in Missoula, Mont. “And so they built these wooden buildings downtown, because they knew there was no point —…
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The impoverished immigrant who married an American prince — and became a socialist hero
Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes By Adam Hochschild Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 320 pages, $30 It’s tempting to think, as the 2020 election unfolds, that we’re living through the great American confrontation of capitalism and socialism. Has there ever been a figure who more compellingly captured…
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National Museum of American Jewish History files for bankruptcy
Faced with a decade-long deficit, the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, rocked in recent years by institutional changes, is hoping that filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy will move the institution toward financial sustainability. The museum, known for its exhibits on Leonard Bernstein, Richard Avedon and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has…
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Coronavirus scuttles China tour for Yiddish ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
Read this article in Yiddish. The Yiddish production of “Fiddler on the Roof” was scheduled to tour China this spring but has apparently fallen victim to coronavirus. On January 13th, cast members were informed via email of a three-city tour that would have taken place from April 13th to May 10th. But according to Zalmen…
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When Turkey sent Holocaust refugees to their deaths — and let nationalism grow unchecked
Serenade for Nadia: A Novel By Zülfü Livaneli, translated by Brendan Feely Other Press, 417 pages, $17.99 Desperate refugees embarking on treacherous sea voyages. Unscrupulous guides making fortunes from humanitarian crises. Leaky boats destined for disaster. Governments colluding to evade responsibility. These sound like details from the humanitarian crises of the last few years. But…
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From an Israeli master, one final gift
And the Bride Closed the Door: By Ronit Matalon, translated by Jessica Cohen New Vessel Press, $128 pages, $15.95 Ronit Matalon died just one day after she received Israel’s prestigious Brenner Prize for her novel “And the Bride Closed the Door.” Matalon’s daughter, who accepted the prize for her mother, drew a parallel between the…
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