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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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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Nelson Mandela, Iconic Leader for Jews of South Africa — and World
On this day, 25 years ago, Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first black president. In honor of that anniversary, we are revisiting Richard Goldstone’s essay that he wrote on the occasion of Mandela’s passing in 2013. Nelson Mandela has become a beloved icon for all of South Africa, and no less for its…
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How Eli Valley’s Art Started An Anti-Semitism Scandal At Stanford
It began on Thursday, May 2, when members of the Stanford chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) posted flyers with cartoons by Eli Valley, a Jewish political cartoonist known for his provocative drawings of right-wing and Jewish figures. Soon after, Nazi-era propaganda appeared in freshman dorms. By May 7 one of The New…
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At Riveting Auschwitz Exhibition, Troubling Lessons For Today’s America
Before I went to see “Auschwitz, Not Long Ago, Not Far Away,” a massive show at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, I had never set foot in a Holocaust exhibit. I didn’t want the inevitable manipulative clichés of exhibit design — dramatically lit artifacts set against wall-sized photo murals of emaciated people in striped pajamas…
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Elizabeth Warren Wants To Scrub Sackler Name From Harvard Campus
Massachusetts Senator and 2020 presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has officially voiced support for removing the Sackler name from buildings at Harvard University. Warren, a former law professor at Harvard, told CNN of her position through an aide on Wednesday. The Sackler family are both the majority owners of Purdue Pharma, which manufactures the opioid OxyContin,…
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He Translated One Of The Greatest Modern Yiddish Writers — And Didn’t Know
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Harold Rabinowitz likes to say that when he pulled into the driveway at the Beacon Inn in Brookline, Massachusetts, his life became like “something from the movies.” It was winter 1979. Rabinowitz, or Heshie, as he calls himself, was a pulpit rabbi in nearby Malden and a…
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Film & TV Baby Archie Of Sussex Will Never Be Archie Andrews Of Riverdale
On the afternoon of May 8, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex revealed the name of their baby on Instagram: Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. It’s a cute name, but I’m unable to accept it. While there’s a long tradition of British Archibalds, among them the many Scottish Lords of Douglas – the same ones that often…
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I Didn’t Want To Fall For Israel — Confessions Of A Millennial Jew
I remember it like this: It was the turn of the century. There was an uprising. I had just learned how to read. It was an odd time to take children to Israel. The country had become a bloody backdrop against which cafes and buses exploded, flinging scraps of human flesh into the air. We…
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Music The Astronomical Force And Zen Cool Of Leonard Cohen
The late phase of Leonard Cohen’s career began, like a lot of artistic triumphs, with the desperate need for a quick buck. In 2004, Cohen learned that his manager, Kelley Lynch, had been quietly stealing his money and that he was now, at the age of seventy, virtually penniless. Lynch was ordered to pay 9.5…
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Music WATCH: That Time Leonard Cohen Was On ‘Miami Vice’
The late Leonard Cohen worked in many mediums – poetry, music, fiction – less remembered is his contribution to the realm of drama. And what a contribution it is! Visitors to the new exhibit “A Crack in Everything” at the Jewish Museum will find, amid relics more germane to the artist’s ongoing influence in the…
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For Mother’s Day — 9 Great Versions Of ‘My Yiddishe Mame’
What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day than to sit back and listen to “My Yiddishe Mame,” which long ago escaped the confines of the Jewish ghetto to become one of the world’s most popular songs about the love of a mother. The proof is in the wide range of singers of all backgrounds and…
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Mother’s Day Honor Roll
Happy Mother’s Day! We’re pleased to honor our readers’ moms, bubbes and other beloved women in their lives. Thank you for supporting Jewish journalism, Jewish life and Jewish community. Esther Bar-lev (in memory) Paula Bennett (in honor) Leila Fisher (in honor) Suzi Fisher (in honor) Carole Garber (in honor) Judy Greenberg (in honor) Janet Hadda…
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Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
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Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
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Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
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Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
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Fast Forward Trump nominee Ed Martin, who praised a Nazi sympathizer, also compared Biden to Hitler
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Opinion RFK Jr. and Trump are talking about an ‘autism registry’ — this sounds disturbingly familiar
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Fast Forward Heavy police presence blocks anti-Israel protest in Brooklyn from reaching Jewish neighborhood
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Yiddish קאָקני־ייִדיש“: אַ פּאָדקאַסט, אַ לשון און אַ שטײגער לעבן‘Cockney Yiddish’: A podcast, a language and a way of life
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