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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Why we have to keep talking about Monsey — a letter from my hometown
On Friday in Monsey, I went with my youngest relatives to one of the giant kosher markets and bought a hot latke to eat right there, on the spot. Monsey, where I grew up, is the kind of place where that is possible; the latke stand had signs in four languages — Yiddish, Hebrew, English…
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Meet the comics bringing Jews and Muslims together through stand-up
In April of 2019, comedian Eitan Levine held a five-day comedy festival at his New York apartment. Yeganeh Mafaher was part of a diverse slate of comics who graced Levine’s living room with her set, which explores — among other topics — being Iranian-American and looking like Anne Frank. The two had not met before…
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For Isaac Asimov, Galactic Talmudist, on his 100th birthday
Editor’s Note: Isaac Asimov, whose 100th birthday falls on January 2, 2020, is one of very few popular authors whose published works far exceed their number of years on earth. By some counts, Asimov’s books nearly come to 500. A polymath of remarkable output, the writer, chemist and professor of biochemistry, who died in 1992…
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Film & TV 1 million Israelis tune in for season 3 of ‘Fauda’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The first episode of the third season of the hit Israeli drama “Fauda” was viewed by Israelis about 1 million times in the 48 hours after it first aired. The Israeli drama, in Hebrew and Arabic, received a 12.6 percent share of viewers during its debut on Thursday night, according to a…
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Art Käthe Kollwitz: Artist of the resistance
*This is the fourth in a series of stories about the work of Käthe Kollwitz and how it influenced artists, activists and collectors like Dr. Richard Simms, part of whose collection is being exhibited by the Getty Center in Los Angeles. You may find the previous articles here, here and here. In 1903, working with…
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Jerry Herman, Tony-winning composer of ‘La Cage’ and ‘Hello, Dolly,’ dies at 88
Jerry Herman, the Tony-winning composer-lyricist who gave showstoppers to Broadway’s leading ladies and vibrant voice to gay life during the AIDS crisis, died in Miami on Thursday. He was 88. Born in Manhattan, Gerald Sheldon Herman’s love affair with musical theater began when he was a young teen, after he saw Ethel Merman in “Annie…
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Made of gold, not clay: Give the world’s most valuable dreidel a spin
They didn’t make this one out of clay. A New York diamond dealer has just set a Guinness World Record for the world’s most valuable dreidel, valued at $70,000. With a hand-made body composed of 18 karat gold, symbols inlaid with diamonds and a 4.20 carat diamond at the top’s point, Estate Diamond Jewelry’s sales…
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At an L.A. children’s museum, a universal story with Jewish origins
Directly above the Disney Store and just across from the Cheesecake Factory on the top level of the outdoor Santa Monica Place mall, the Cayton Children’s Museum looks out onto a glittering central courtyard, where the mall’s oversized Christmas tree stretches up three stories. The star-topped tip sits just above eye level with the museum’s…
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In 1913, a rabbi appeared on film for the very first time — in a Christmas movie
As the winter winds whipped through lower Manhattan in the days before Christmas in 1913, a group of rabbis took shelter in a screening room to watch a film that claimed to be about them. It was the first American movie to feature a rabbi as a character. Shortly after the screening, a report from…
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Psychedelics Pioneer And New Age Guru Ram Dass Dies At 88
Baba Ram Dass, the self-effacing guru, psychedelic evangelist and promoter of Eastern theology died December 22 at his home in Maui, Hawaii. A post on Ram Dass’s Instagram page reported his passing at the age of 88. Before Ram Dass became a best-selling New Age author, and even before he partnered with Timothy Leary in…
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Top 10 reasons it’s great being Jewish on Christmas
Top 10 Reasons It’s Great Being Jewish On Christmas #10: We love seeing Christmas lights – on other people’s homes. We haven’t climbed a ladder in years and don’t want to try it now. We save changing the burned out lightbulbs until our extra-tall son comes to visit. And we don’t have to nag our…
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Culture I come from a long line of Jewish Bundists. Now, Molly Crabapple is part of our family.
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Fast Forward 200+ Bnei Menashe immigrate to Israel from India, the first to make the journey in years
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Yiddish װאָס קען מען זיך אָפּלערנען פֿון מאָלי קראַבעפּלס בוך װעגן „בונד“?What can we learn from Molly Crabapple’s book about the Bund?
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט