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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Foraging for the perfect shtetl recipe: Mushroom barley soup then and now
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. In this installment,…
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Mourning ‘Actors Studio’ host James Lipton — and remembering his best moments
James Lipton, the oft-parodied host of “Inside the Actors Studio” has died at the age of 93. Famous for his pomposity, Mid-Atlantic accent and corny closing questions, Lipton was a meme-worthy figure before the advent of memes. “MadTV” and “Saturday Night Live” skewered him, with cast members playing up his pretension; for “The Simpsons,” he…
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In “Unorthodox” and “One of Us,” a balancing act of hope and despair
The top question I’ve been getting for the past month is “What do you think of ‘Unorthodox’?” As Executive Director of Footsteps for a decade I’ve seen over a thousand new members come through our doors, and watched a community of people leaving ultra-Orthodoxy blossom into a global movement. “Unorthodox” is beautifully done, and it…
The Latest
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WATCH NOW: Virtual Conversation: Look to the Helpers: Caring for Vulnerable Populations
This event has already taken place. Watch the video recording here. On Passover, it is tradition to practice ma’ot chitim, providing the poor with matzah. This feels especially relevant this year amid a pandemic that is causing economic hardship and a public health crisis. How can we help our community in this critical time while…
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WATCH NOW: Virtual Conversation: A Plague of Our Own
This event has already taken place. Watch the video recording here. What do the Ten Plagues from the Book of Exodus have to teach us about the pandemic we are experiencing? And how can the coronavirus crisis deepen our understanding of the Ten Plagues? As we all think about how to do Seders in this…
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In Israel, a radical textbook for asylum seekers teaches Hebrew — minus Zionism
Timnit Ftwi, a 23-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker in Israel, speaks fluent Hebrew, which she picked up through her job as a house cleaner. But up until recently, she could hardly read or write in the language. When presented with a document to sign — like a bill, or an apartment lease — she would write…
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Will Pope Pius’ archives shed light on his silence during the Shoah?
Over a 75 years after Nazis conducted mass deportations of Roman Jews to Auschwitz, we may finally learn why Pope Pius XII, heralded by some as a man who quietly saved Jewish lives and dubbed “Hitler’s Pope” by others, did not speak up on their behalf. On March 2 Pius XII’s archives will be made…
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WATCH NOW: Virtual Conversation: Parenting in a Pandemic
This event has already taken place. Watch the video recording here. Join our live panel discussion, “Parenting in a Pandemic: Home-schooling, canceled B’nei mitzvah and what will happen to camp?” Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief of the Forward, will host a conversation about how Jewish parents are approaching and adapting to this new reality featuring David Bryfman,…
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March 25: Forward Archivist to join “The Fire of a Movement” Livestream
Forward Archivist, Chana Pollack will join the live broadcast of an episode from “The Future of America’s Past” that features The Forward’s treasured archives. This special livestream event recognizes the 109th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City. Join us to watch “The Fire of a Movement,” an episode about the…
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The secret Jewish history of Leap Year (and Leap Shabbat too)
For only the ninth time since Americans threw off the yoke of British oppression, Jews across the continent will be celebrating Shabbat on a leap day. Saturday, February 29, 2020 will be the first Leap Shabbat since President George H. W. Bush was in office, since Mark Rypien led the Washington Redskins to Super Bowl…
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Bernie Sanders made a documentary on Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs, and it’s the most Bernie Sanders thing ever
If Bernie Sanders looks and sounds like a man who once produced amateur socialist agitprop out of his home, it may be because he did just that. Yes, in 1977, after a failed run for Vermont’s governorship, Sanders and his neighbor Nancy Barnett launched the American People’s Historical Society, an educational video endeavor billed in…
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In Case You Missed It
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Books For the Jews of Venice, an uneasy history of scapegoating and grudging tolerance
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Fast Forward British Museum postpones a Jewish Culture Month lecture, citing ‘disruption’ concerns
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Opinion In Miami, rekindling the Black-Jewish alliance that Clarence Jones insisted never died
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News Floyd Mayweather showered cash on Jewish causes — and now he’s suing their ‘Robin Hood’ alleging $175 million got diverted