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
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On the northwest side of Chicago, my old Jewish neighborhood may soon live on in infamy
Albany Park was home to Rosenblum's Bookstore, Weinberg's Clothing — and also alleged DC shooter Elias Rodriguez
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‘Ishtar’ Is Still Far From Perfect — But It’s Still Unlike Anything Else
Elaine May’s 1987 flop, “Ishtar,” might well be the most accomplished punching bag in cinematic history. The reasons aren’t hard to figure out, but are almost too numerous to name. Well before the film hit theaters, reports of infighting between May, her cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, the post-production team and the cast leaked to the press…
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The Terror Attack That Wasn’t — Pride And Poetry in Dupont Circle
I was not shot as I lay on the floor of a Japanese restaurant in Washington D.C. while the city’s Pride Parade erupted into panic. Not a scratch on me. I didn’t suffer a sprained ankle or other light injuries as others did, from running through the streets that radiate out from Dupont Circle. This…
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Former Mueller Prosecutor Andrew Weissmann To Write Book On Special Counsel Investigation
What do you do when you conclude a highly secretive, nearly two-year-long investigation into a sitting president? Get a book deal, of course. Andrew Weissmann, one of the top prosecutors on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, is breaking his silence on the inner workings of Mueller’s probe into the president and his advisors, The…
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Q&A: Author Julie Salamon On Leon Klinghoffer And The Hijacking That Horrified The World
In October 1985, guerrillas connected to the Palestinian Liberation Front hijacked an Italian cruise ship called the Achille Lauro. All of the passengers survived — save for Leon Klinghoffer, a disabled 69-year-old Jewish-American retiree. Klinghoffer was shot twice by the leader of the hijackers, Majid al-Molqi, and tossed into the ocean by two crew members…
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The Secret Jewish History Of ‘The Wizard Of Oz’
On its 80th anniversary, “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) remains one of the most influential musical films ever made in Hollywood, in part because of its Jewish inspiration. The film’s wide audience has always included Jewish spectators. The historian Adele Reinhartz has recalled the “religious” devotion with which her Canadian Jewish family binge-watched WoO, followed…
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Q & A: Stephanie Burt On Whether Poetry Matters
Does poetry matter? If you ask Stephanie Burt, the poet, Harvard University English professor and co-editor of poetry at The Nation, the answer is no. Well, almost. Burt, author of the newly-released “Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems,” thinks the word “poetry” does a disservice to poems, obscuring the diversity of…
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David Mamet’s Harvey Weinstein Play Is As Bad As We Expected
In January, we reported with all due chagrin that David Mamet was premiering a play based on Harvey Weinstein on London’s West End. That play, “Bitter Wheat,” opened June 19 and early reviews have us even more confused — not about the play’s quality, but about its baseline reason for existing. In the production, John…
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Chagall’s ‘The Lovers’ Covered At The Met In Recognition Of Refugees
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is making a bold statement with one of its boldest holdings. “The Lovers” by Marc Chagall is covered this week in recognition of World Refugee Day on June 20, Artnet reported. The move is part of a partnership between the Met and the International Rescue Committee to draw attention to…
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For Garry Winogrand, All Great Photography Had To Be Jewish
Garry Winogrand was the restless omnivore of photography, the artist who surveyed all of midcentury America and swallowed it whole. In the work he produced between the 50s and the 80s, he embraced everything without ever quite endorsing or prettifying it. He approached his subjects, instead, with a kind of hard-won gusto: a willingness to…
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We’re Arguing About Concentration Camps — But What Does The Term Really Mean?
The use of the phrase “concentration camp” has caused a firestorm on Twitter — this time because New York Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez on June 18 called detention centers at the U.S. border “concentration camps,” language that was swiftly criticized by Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney as demeaning the memory of the Holocaust. After Ocasio-Cortez said in…
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8 Women Accuse Screenwriter Max Landis Of Sexual And Psychological Abuse
The following contains explicit accounts of sexual and psychological abuse Celebrity screenwriter Max Landis, writer of the films “Bright” and “Chronicle” and son of director John Landis, has been accused of physical and emotional abuse by eight women in a sweeping exposé published by The Daily Beast on June 18. Many of the women, some…
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