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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At ADL Conference, Sacha Baron Cohen Breaks Character To Call Out Mark Zuckerberg
For the first time in his career, Sacha Baron Cohen delivered a speech out of character. The occasion was the Anti-Defamation League’s 2019 Leadership Conference, held November 21 at the Javits Center in New York. Baron Cohen, the recipient of the ADL’s International Leadership Award, came to the lectern with no shoulder-secured Speedo, no prosthetics…
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Is This The Most Prescient Novel Of 2019?
Last month, when I spoke to the author, screenwriter and film director Nicholas Meyer over at LitHub about his new novel “The Adventures of the Peculiar Protocols,” we spent some time talking about how unfortunately timely the book was. Both a chilling, cautionary tale and a rip-roaring yarn that sets Sherlock Holmes on the trail…
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The Most Dangerous Anti-Semitic Lie — The Return Of The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion
Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council, dropped a bombshell during her testimony in today’s impeachment hearings by likening the George Soros conspiracy theories “the new Elders of the Protocols of Zion.” Well, what are those Protocols? “A classic of anti-Semitic literature,” according to Encyclopedia Brittanica. The “classic” goes by…
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Climate Activist Apologizes For Holocaust Remarks After German Publisher Cancels His Book
Following the cancelation of the German edition of his book, the controversial British climate activist Roger Hallam has apologized for remarks that were criticized for making light of the Holocaust. In excerpts from an interview with German daily Der Zeit that appeared Wednesday, Hallam, a co-founder of the London-based climate group Extinction Rebellion — also…
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A Wiser — And Much Older — ’Fiddler On The Roof’
In a black box theater at New York University, Tevye’s teenage daughters, wearing long skirts, head scarves and modern shoes — the shtetl, but with Doc Martens and duck boots — sang the last notes of “Matchmaker.” The dress rehearsal looked like any other production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” in every way but one:…
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Susan Choi, László Krasznahorkai Take Home National Book Awards
On November 20, the National Book Foundation feted six diverse winners for its 70th annual National Book Awards. Novelist Susan Choi, the daughter of a Korean father and a Russian-Jewish mother won the fiction prize for her fifth book, “Trust Exercise,” a narratively-inventive, #MeToo-informed story about a performing arts high school in the 1980s. The…
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Lin-Manuel Miranda Almost Did ‘My Name Is Asher Lev’ Instead Of ‘Hamilton’
Lin-Manuel Miranda is a household name. He made Alexander Hamilton one, too. Might he have done the same for a young ultra-Orthodox painter named Asher Lev? During a November 19 Reddit Ask Me Anything, Miranda said that he once owned the theatrical rights to Chaim Potok’s novel “My Name is Asher Lev” (1972), which follows…
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Vampire Weekend, Babs And RBG’s Son Pick Up 2020 Grammy Nominations
As with all things Jewish, there are ups, and there are downs. At first glance 2020’s Grammy nominees, announced November 20, find our people performing admirably, but not necessarily with the degree of success to which we’ve become accustomed. Drake, for example, only has two nominations, down from last year’s seven. But the Grammys distributes…
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What’s Jewish About The 10 Democratic Debaters: A Visual Guide
From the earliest stirrings of our republic, American presidents have been connected to the Jewish people. General Washington relied on financier Haym Salomon for ready cash for the Continental Army, and as our population climbed, Jews have served as Supreme Court justices, cabinet secretaries, speechwriters, senators and security experts called on to testify in impeachment…
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In Impeachment Hearings, The Dignity Of Details
On Friday, instead of cleaning for Shabbat, I found myself riveted and completely spellbound by the testimony of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. But something else struck me — the raw power of the question as a form. The idea, old as the Greeks and deeply present in the Talmud, that question followed by question can lead…
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Read Meghan Markle’s Favorite Jewish Books
From Noam Chomsky to Annie Leibovitz, here's what Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, has on her bookshelf.
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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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Opinion American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt
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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