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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Q & A: How Does Impeachment Work?
Editor’s note: On September 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Here, constitutional law professor Cass Sunstein discusses what impeachment is and how it works. This interview was originally published on July 1, 2019. In 1998, with President Bill Clinton’s impeachment proceedings underway, Cass R. Sunstein, then a constitutional…
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How A Jewish Comedian Became Ukraine’s President And The Center Of Trump’s Impeachment Inquiry
Editor’s note: On September 24, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump. That announcement followed reports that Trump allegedly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Zelensky, a Jewish former comedian, has an unorthodox political background:…
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Joachim Gans, The First Jew In North America, Honored With Historical Marker
In 1585, some 100 men made landfall on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina. Sent to establish the first English North American colony, not all of the expedition’s members were English. And one, despite sailing under the auspices of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, wasn’t even Christian. Joachim Gans, a metallurgist from Prague, may well have…
The Latest
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Paul Rudd Had One Good Jewish Joke In ‘Between Two Ferns’ – And One Really Bad One
Paul Rudd gives us much to kvell over. Since “Clueless,” he has been a Nice Jewish Boy heartthrob; he’s pure, funny, talented, good-looking and scandal free. Like all the best movie stars, Rudd elevates everything he’s in. Even if you don’t like one of his performances or films, you always like him. If you are…
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WATCH: The Timeless Yiddish Love Song, ‘It’s Dark Outside’
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Adah Hetko is a Yiddish singer who adapts classic songs from the collections of ethnomusicologists such as Ruth Rubin and gives them a modern feel. In this recording, produced by the Forverts, she performs her take on the folk song “In Droysn Iz Fintster” (“It’s Dark Outside”)…
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Ian McEwan Brings Brexit To Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’
Jerusalem and Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan sees the current state of British politics as a touch Kafkaesque. Along those lines, he announced September 12 the release of a new novella, “The Cockroach,” which turns Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” formula on its antenna, having the titular pest transform into a human. Not just any human, the Prime…
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The Secret Jewish History Of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Beloved Infidel’
Editor’s Note: F. Scott Fitzgerald was born on this day in 1896. He’s a look back at his relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham. Sheilah Graham, longtime Hollywood gossip columnist and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lover and muse, was delighted to share her personal history, especially its romantic highlights. She wrote no fewer than 10 tell-alls….
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The Joyous Tragedy Of Eva Hesse
It is, I think, no melodramatic overstatement to describe the artist Eve Hesse’s life as essentially tragic. As a toddler, she barely survived World War II, having been sent from her Hamburg home to Holland on the Kindertransport with her older sister Helen. Later, she watched her mother destroy herself after learning that her own…
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Film About Yitzhak Rabin’s Assassin Takes Israel’s Top Prize
JTA — A film about the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as seen through the eyes of his murderer won Israel’s Ophir Award for Best Picture and will be the county’s nomination for an Oscar. “Incitement” won Israel’s top prize on Sunday night at the Ophir Awards of the Israel Academy of Film…
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Jewish Activism Won The Night At The 2019 Emmys
The grand experiment of the 2019 hostless Emmys was an at-times confounding show of pageantry and schtick. It began with Homer Simpson’s apparent onstage death, was punctuated throughout with Thomas Lennon’s head-scratching commentary and, yes, featured a number of huge wins for Jews and other minorities who used their platform to push for equality and…
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How Genetics Paint A Picture Of The Jewish Past
From the time of the Babylonian Exile, Jews have been spread far and wide, carrying with us mementos of our ancient past in our blood, spit and the microscopic double helix of our DNA. Among the best tools the Chosen People have for finding a link to antiquity is bleeding-edge technology that analyzes our genes…
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News An Israeli restaurant chain said it closed due to boycotts. Protesters are celebrating.
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Sports It’s so cool that Sandy Koufax was there for that
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News Mamdani opposes Zionism, but wants New York public schools to teach about it
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