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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Seattle Times Suspends Journalist Mike Rosenberg For Sexually Harassing Messages
The Seattle Times has suspended journalist Mike Rosenberg after a female freelancer posted screenshots to Twitter of a conversation in which he appeared to have made sexually explicit remarks. The screenshots, which the freelancer, Talia Jane, posted as part of a thread the morning of May 5, began with Rosenberg encouraging Jane to seek out…
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Art Why Did This Pioneering Trustee Leave LACMA And Place His Prized Collection With The Getty?
Editor’s Note: This is the second story in a series about the work and art of Käthe Kollwitz and how it influenced artists, activists and collectors like Dr. Richard Simms. Read Part I here. Dr. Richard A. Simms devoted himself to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for 33 years. From the time it…
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The Odyssey Of Dr. Richard Simms — An Art Collector Like No Other
Editor’s Note: This is the first story in a series about the work and art of Käthe Kollwitz and how it influenced artists, activists and collectors like Dr. Richard Simms. Read Part II here. When Richard A. Simms told his grandmother that he wanted to become an artist, she fired back, “No, boy, you will…
The Latest
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Robert Alter And The Art Of Biblical Disappointment
The Art of Bible Translation By Robert Alter Princeton University Press, 152 pages, $24.95 Students disappoint their teachers constantly, but we enjoy doing so only rarely. Only once have I pleasurably frustrated Robert Alter’s hopes. I was sitting in his office, where I had come to discuss my paper for a graduate seminar on Exodus….
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Art How Sex And Power Collude — The Uncompromising Art Of Nancy Spero
In a civilization neurotic with branding, some artists are identified as simply “artists,” while others get qualified. Nancy Spero, whose wonderful work is now a subject of a major show at MOMA PS1, is often called a “political artist,” or “artist and activist.” Even as they attempt to be merely descriptive, or even honorific, such…
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Folksbiene Plans Ambitious Season To Follow Yiddish ‘Fiddler’
The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene has a tough act to follow for its 105th season. Last year, the Folksbiene launched a remarkably successful Yiddish production of “Fiddler on the Roof” that, following a sold-out run at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, transferred Off-Broadway, where it is currently playing at Stage 42. In its 2019-2020 season,…
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Michael David Lukas Wins 2019 Sami Rohr Prize For Jewish Literature
On April 30 the Jewish Book Council named Michael David Lukas the winner of the 2019 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, the largest prize in the world of Jewish letters. Lukas is the author of the novel “The Last Watchman of Old Cairo” and a 2018 National Jewish Book Award winner. The book tells…
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The Secret Jewish History Of “Rock Around The Clock”
It wasn’t the first rock-and-roll song. It wasn’t even the first rock-and-roll hit. But 65 years ago this May, Bill Haley and His Comets’ version of “Rock Around the Clock” was released, beginning its long, strange journey to the top of the pop charts, where it became the first rock-and-roll tune to hit the No….
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Kurt Weill Opera Suppressed By The Nazis To Make A One-Night Return
A little-known — and very Jewish — opera by Kurt Weill is scheduled to debut in a fresh translation prompted by new insight into why the work remained obscure. Weill, a composer known for his collaborations with the playwright Bertolt Brecht, wrote the comic opera “The Tsar Wants His Photograph Taken” with librettist Georg Kaiser…
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Theater ‘Hadestown,’ ‘Tootsie’ and ‘The Ferryman’ Lead The 2019 Tony Awards Nominees
A folk ballad riff on Greek myth, a family divided by the IRA, a “mad as hell” newscaster and two men who dress in drag for two very different reasons. The most diverse Broadway season in recent memory has made for an eclectic ballot of 2019 Tony nominees. The Tony Award’s announced its nominees April…
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Q & A: Aaron Sorkin On What White Liberal Guys Want
What to do about Aaron Sorkin? The writer and director was once a voice of liberal America. We swooned over the grand ideals and political savvy of President Bartlett and his coterie of advisors on “The West Wing.” A 2012 clip from “The Newsroom” in which Jeff Daniels, as news anchor Will McAvoy, tears down…
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