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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Books In the Italian city where James Joyce wrote ‘Ulysses’ a Jewish poet’s bookstore rises back to life
In 1919, Umberto Saba opened an antiquarian bookstore; a century later, the people of Trieste saved it
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How John Mulaney Spoofed Sondheim For ‘Documentary Now!’
John Mulaney understands the Jewish soul. In the latest episode of IFC’s “Documentary Now!” the Irish Catholic-raised actor-comedian reinforces the Yiddishkeit promise of Broadway’s “Oh Hello!”, which he created with Nick Kroll, and the bawdy adolescent Jewishness of his role as Andrew Glouberman in another Kroll collaboration, “Big Mouth,” by donning sideburns to play a…
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Music Remembering Andre Previn — Who Transcended Nebbish-Hood As A Master Musician
In recent years, the musicianship of André Previn — the conductor, pianist, and composer of German Jewish origin who has died at the age of 89 — has finally been celebrated more than his once-hectic personal life. Previn was formerly married to the songwriter Dory Previn, actress Mia Farrow, and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, among his…
The Latest
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In Finland, A Yiddish Resurgence
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Part of my work as Forverts editor is to speak at Jewish conferences, community centers and synagogues about the Forverts and Yiddish culture, which is what brought me to the Finnish capital of Helsinki in early February. I had been invited to this year’s Limud Conference Helsinki…
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If Michael Cohen Gets His Movie Deal, Here’s Who Should Play Him
Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen isn’t ruling out the film trade. In today’s contentious testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Cohen alluded to being approached with both book and movie deals. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) asked Cohen if he would commit under oath to “not pursue a book or movie deal based on [his] experiences…
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Modern Judaism’s Approach To Sex Is Still Creepy And Medieval
I had sex for the first time at a Jewish youth program. It was a positive experience for me, like having an elective surgery performed by a newly licensed family friend and waking up afterward to find that all your limbs still work. I am sure there are as many people who give up their…
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In Philip Roth’s New York Apartment: Hints Of How He Spent His Final Years
You could now live in Philip Roth’s two-story New York condo – but it will cost you. The late author’s apartment on West 79th Street, where he spent much of his later years, is now listed for $3.2 million, Mansion Global reported. It appears that the roughly 1,500 square foot two bedroom, combined from two…
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2020 Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Won An Award For This Essay On Bernie Sanders In High School
37-year-old South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a longshot presidential candidate in an already crowded Democratic field. At press time he’s still jockeying for the 65,000 individual donors needed to qualify for the first round of Democratically-sponsored debates in June. Meanwhile, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has raised $10 million for his campaign less than…
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7 Questions For Barry Avrich, Director Of ‘Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World Of Ben Ferencz’
Only a day after he learned about Ben Ferencz, the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor, filmmaker Barry Avrich was in contact and getting ready to make a documentary about him. The resulting film, “Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz,” now playing at New York’s Cinema Village and opening in select cities Friday March 1,…
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Mapped In Recipes, A Savage Landscape Of Jewish Hunger
A few years after I learned to read, I encountered a formative image in one of Sydney Taylor’s “All of a Kind Family” books. I remember it with absolute clarity: A daughter admires her mother’s figure, unique among the Eastern European Jewish women of the Lower East Side. They tend, she thinks, to look like…
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Film & TV ‘Green Book’ Got Racism Wrong; This 1964 Film Got It Right
You may have heard that people are upset about “Green Book” winning the 2019 Oscar for Best Movie. Or you may have seen Spike Lee, whose “BlackKklansman” was also up for the award, drain a full glass of champagne rather than respond to a question about what he thought of the film’s victory. The “Green…
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Music What You Need To Know About R. Kelly’s Lawyer, Steve Greenberg
R. Kelly’s latest legal case was never going to be a low profile affair. The “Trapped in the Closet” singer, whose real name is Robert Kelly, was arrested in Chicago Friday, February 22, on charges of aggravated sexual abuse spanning over a decade and involving four women, three of whom were minors at the time,…
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Fast Forward It was a historic Jewish night at the Oscars. Why are so many Jews outraged?
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Music In 1964, when he was just 23, Bob Dylan wrote the prophetic anthem that encapsulates Trump’s America
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Film & TV Mikey Madison is Jewish — is ‘Anora’?
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Opinion The Germans have a word for what’s happening in Trump’s America
In Case You Missed It
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Books Two middle-aged women defied the Nazis. One ‘wrote’ a book that betrayed the other.
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Fast Forward What does the election of Mark Carney mean for Canadian Jews and Israel?
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Culture Why are Jews buried in a plain pine coffin?
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Fast Forward Trump’s hostage envoy defends talks with Hamas: Meeting with ‘bad people is part of my job’
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