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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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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Film & TV Zionist, Author, Screenwriter, Newspaper Man: The Inimitable Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht: Fighting Words, Moving Pictures By Adina Hoffman Yale University Press, 232 pages, $26 In 1947 Mickey Cohen, the Los Angeles crime boss, paid a visit to Ben Hecht, the journalist, screenwriter and propagandist for a Jewish state, to ask how he might best support Jews in Palestine. When the mobster and his henchmen…
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Music WATCH: Laurie Anderson Read Emma Lazarus’s ‘The New Colossus’
The weathered words on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty endure to this day, even though most immigrants no longer encounter them on their journey. But the sonnet “The New Colossus,” written by Emma Lazarus, is only the poet’s most visible contribution to literature. This year, the American Jewish Historical Society, the steward of…
The Latest
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Remembering Avram Lyon’s Holistic Approach to Jewish Life
Avram “Avi” Lyon, who died on April 1 at age 76, was more than just a labor activist defending the rights of downtrodden workers. He epitomized a holistic approach to Jewish ethics and culture. With crystalline clarity, he linked Jewish ethics as an indissociable element of Jewish ritual. As former head of Jewish Labor Committee,…
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When Americans Thought Hitler Had Been Killed — In 1939
On April 1, 1939, Hitler was in a very bad mood. The previous day the Führer had learned that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had grown something resembling a spine. After reversing Britain’s policy of appeasement on March 15, following Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia, on March 31 Chamberlain made a pledge of Anglo-French support to…
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Film & TV NYPD ‘Actively Investigating’ David Blaine After Sexual Assault Accusations
The New York Police Department is investigating magician David Blaine after two women accused him of sexual assault. In a news conference April 1, Dermot F. Shea, the department’s chief of detectives confirmed the investigation into the complaints, first reported by The Daily Beast. Shea refused to comment on the details of the allegations or…
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Benito Mussolini’s Granddaughter Is Fighting With Jim Carrey On Twitter
Twitter is a commons of free thought that has no equivalent in our history. Every so often we’re granted reminders of how thoroughly connected the little blue bird has made our lives. Who could have foreseen, for instance, that we would one day have a medium wherein Jim Carrey and Benito Mussolini’s granddaughter could engage…
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The Forward’s Daily Newsletter
Want more Forward in your inbox? The best way to keep up with the American Jewish conversation is to sign up for the Forward’s free newsletter. Morning Edition: Our “Forwarding the News” morning newsletter helps you start your day by curating the latest news, opinion and culture stories from the pages of the Forward and…
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The Sami Rohr Prize For Jewish Literature Announces Its Nominees
On April 1 the Jewish Book Council announced the finalists for the 2019 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. Awarded since 2007, the Rohr Prize recognizes early career English-language writers whose work reflects the Jewish experience. The five finalists in contention for the top $100,000 prize include two past National Jewish Book Award winners —…
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RBG Attended An Amos Oz Commemoration In DC
On the afternoon of March 31, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a rare public appearance at the Temple Sinai synagogue in Washington, DC to pay her respects to Israeli author Amos Oz, who died of cancer in December at the age of 79. Ginsburg, who has been keeping a low profile since undergoing…
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Everyone Is Baffled By Batsheva
If you are a short person in New York you will experience certain uncomfortable things. Men reaching for the subway pole will put their elbows where your head ought to be. At events filled with tall women, you will feel like a child even as you mutter “I AM 26.” In your impractically tall-ceilinged apartment,…
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Film & TV Don’t Dismiss Steve Bannon — He Really Does Want To Dismantle The World Order
Stephen K. Bannon lost his job in the White House more than a year and a half ago, departing in an atmosphere so rancorous that his erstwhile champion, Donald Trump, slurred him on Twitter as “Sloppy Steve Bannon.”) Then Bannon’s full-throated support for Roy Moore’s campaign to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate ended in…
Most Popular
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Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
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News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
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News As Israel attacks, what is life like for Jews in Iran?
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Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
In Case You Missed It
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Food In gentrified Manhattan, one Jewish luncheonette strives to keep the faith (except for the bacon part)
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Opinion Think speaking out against Trump won’t help? A 1943 protest in Nazi Germany says you’re wrong.
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Culture How a Jewish reporter like me got addicted to Christian media
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Opinion Israeli leaders are using Holocaust comparisons to justify attacks on Iran. Is that kosher?
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