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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Jamie Margolin: The Teenager Who Would Be President
Teenage activists are something of a phenomenon in recent years: David Hogg on guns, Greta Thunberg on climate change, Mari Copeny on the Flint water crisis. Then there is Margolin, who is 18 and spent the year appearing at dozens of conferences around the world, all while writing a book, passing her classes and applying…
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Joseph Cedar: The Director Of Complexity
The HBO miniseries “Our Boys” dramatized the story of the brutal 2014 murder of the Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir, which, following the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers, helped build momentum toward the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict. The series was co-directed by Cedar, 51, an American-born Israeli filmmaker; Hagai Levi, an Israeli television creator;…
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Abby Stein: The Barrier Breaker
Abby Stein’s memoir “Becoming Eve,” about her life and transition, was released in November, but she had been clearing her throat for that text for years. After coming out as trans on her blog in 2015, Stein established a Trans Meet-Up with Eshel, a LGBTQ nonprofit for Orthodox Jews. This year, Stein, 28, was part…
The Latest
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Forward 50 | Rachel Chavkin: Reinventor Of The Broadway Musical
If, in the years since “Hamilton,” you’ve heard buzz about a Broadway show of thrilling originality, chances are it was directed by Rachel Chavkin. Chavkin, the director responsible for “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet Of 1812,” which debuted on Broadway in 2016, and “Hadestown,” which opened on the Great White Way this spring, has…
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Forward 50 | Oren Segal: The hate tracker
It’s a scene that’s as impressive as it is depressing: Whenever an extremist commits violence, Oren Segal, 45, and his team at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism quickly identify the perpetrator’s ideology and social-media history. Sometimes, they’re even quicker than the extremists: Their monitoring of extremists’ online activities has led to at least one…
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Yavilah McCoy: A Force For Inclusion
When the Women’s March expanded its steering committee as part of a response to allegations of anti-Semitism, Yavilah McCoy was one of three Jews who joined. On the morning of this year’s rally in January, McCoy opened her speech with a ringing “Shabbat Shalom.” Later, she told Essence magazine that for Jewish women of color,…
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Gabe Fleisher: The Boy Who Scooped Bill De Blasio
One Wednesday in May after a school exam, Gabe Fleisher tripped across a Facebook event from a county Democratic Party page in Iowa that said Sioux City was the first stop on Bill de Blasio’s “Presidential announcement tour.” This was interesting — because de Blasio had not yet announced he was actually running. So Fleisher,…
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Forward 50 | Max Kellerman: The pundit of sports passion
Nearly 17 years ago, the Forward’s Rukhl Schaechter wrote a short, and endearing, portrait of Max Kellerman, who at the time was not yet 30 years old but was already becoming widely known as a sports commentator on ESPN. Kellerman, it turned out, had gone to Yiddish classes every Saturday with his three brothers while…
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Forward 50 | Bari Weiss: The commentator the left loves to hate
Sassy, smart, savvy and supremely connected, Weiss, 35, was everywhere in 2019: speaking, Tweeting, columnizing and otherwise engaging on the year’s top Jewish concern: How to Fight Anti-Semitism, which also happens to be the title of her first book, published in September. A former Forward staffer, her day job is as a writer and editor…
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Forward 50 | Adam Serwer: Voice of the devastated left
Adam Serwer, 37, is one of the most important journalists on the left writing today. A staff writer at The Atlantic, he delivers trenchant analysis and gives voice to the devastating frustration many feel with the Trump Administration. In the wake of the family separation policy that tore migrant children from their mothers’ arms, Serwer,…
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Ilana Kaufman: The Outsider’s Insider
A queer Jewish woman of color, Ilana Kaufman, 47, has emerged as a national voice for diversity and inclusivity. For years she has pushed for policy changes to make Jews of color and LGBTQ Jews more welcome in Jewish institutions. It’s only fitting that this year she was named director of the Jews of Color…
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