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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Forward 50 | Tal Frieden: The disobedient one
Tal Shahar Frieden, 22, lives in Providence, R.I., and was one of the first organizers of of Never Again Action, a new group pursuing civil disobedience around immigration issues through a Jewish lens. Working with a local group called AMOR, Frieden and others protested the Wyatt Detention Facility in Providence to demand it cut off…
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Carin Mrotz: Justice Fighter in the Far North
As concerns about anti-Semitism on the left have grown, Carin Mrotz and her Minnesota-based organization Jewish Community Action have trained dozens of progressive activists in unconscious bias. Mrotz, in a personal capacity, also led such a training for local Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom she considers a friend. JCA’s advocacy helped strengthen tenant protection laws in…
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Forward 50 | Sheila Katz: A voice for Jewish women
Sheila Katz first made headlines this year by going public with her story of being sexually harassed by a prominent Jewish philanthropist. She told The New York Times that, in 2015, when she was an executive at Hillel International, Michael Steinhardt, a billionaire she was trying to cultivate as a donor, repeatedly asked her if…
The Latest
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Forward 50 | Melina Matsoukas: The camera queen
In the music industry, Melina Matsoukas has long been a magic name. A renowned music-video director, Matsoukas, 38, whose father is Jewish and Greek, made a career of using her camera to reveal the radical undertones of pop, hip hop and R&B songs. Rihanna’s 2010 hit “S&M” was a (censored) radio favorite; the Matsoukas-directed video,…
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Kerry Brodie: Chef To Refugees
At Kerry Brodie’s restaurant, Emma’s Torch, diners can choose between coffee-crusted beef brisket and autumn squash cavatelli, red and gold beets with maple vinaigrette or brussels sprouts with chili vinegar. This is not just any autumnal menu; the restaurant is named for Emma Lazarus, the author of the poem on the base of the Statue…
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Yisroel Goldstein: The Rabbi Of Poway
On April 27, 2019, a white nationalist entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue with guns blazing, killing congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye and wounding three others, including Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who lost a finger. Despite being shot, Goldstein, 57, continued with his sermon, telling the community “Am Yisrael Chai.” Goldstein’s messages of Jewish pride and calls for…
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Benjamin Dreyer: Copyediting King
Benjamin Dreyer, 61, copy chief at Random House, managed to make his style guide, “Dreyer’s English,” a stunning critical and commercial success. In a genre historically associated with extreme stuffiness, Dreyer’s prose sparkles. He greets readers with a winning mix of smarts and snark — “I don’t want to write about the 19th-Century textual critic…
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Emily Mayer: The Activism Activator
IfNotNow has grown in prominence every year since its 2014 founding. But this past year proved to be its most high-profile one yet. Its campaign against Birthright Israel – planting activists to record themselves walking off the free trips – earned the group a New York Times profile. Local chapters, called “hives,” also came into…
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Nicholas Meyer: The Sleuth of Anti-Semitism
An early-20th Century detective story doesn’t feel like the timeliest of tales in 2019. But this year, when the Los Angeles-based writer Nicholas Meyer, 73, published “The Adventures of the Peculiar Protocols,” setting Sherlock Holmes on the trail of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” the timing was disturbingly apt. In a world where…
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Julian Edelman: The Patriot
When you think about prominent Jews in the National Football League, various owners often come to mind. But there is also a 33-year-old, undersized, overachieving, insanely tough wide receiver named Julian Edelman. He’s Jewish, too. Edelman, possessor of three Super Bowl rings, is one of the best Jewish players to ever play the game, and…
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Howard Zucker: The Anti- Anti-Vaxxer
As measles outbreaks mainly in New York’s Haredi communities raged, Dr. Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, met with Orthodox rabbis, visited religious summer camps and lobbied the legislature to eliminate the religious exemption for vaccination. Zucker, 60, who completed medical school at 22 and is also a lawyer qualified to argue before the Supreme…
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