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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Folksbiene Names Dominick Balletta As New Executive Director
The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene, the 104-year-old New York-based company specializing in productions of Yiddish-language drama, announced on October 3 that Dominick Balletta, a veteran of film and theater management, will be the company’s new executive director. Balletta, currently the managing director of the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York, will returning to…
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Could It Be Time For A Yiddish ‘Porgy And Bess?’
Suppose, instead of adapting the white Southerner DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel “Porgy,” the Russian-Jewish American composer George Gershwin took on the Russian-Jewish Russian writer Isaac Babel’s 1926 play “Sunset.” Imagine a Gershwin folk opera set in a Jewish ghetto, rather than African-American slum, not populated by the poor people and criminals of Catfish Row but…
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The Gift Nadine Gordimer Gave to Me
Editor’s Note: On this date in 1991, the author Nadine Gordimer received the Nobel Prize for Literature. To commemorate that anniversary, we return to this essay by National Jewish Book Award-winning author Kenneth Bonert, written on the occasion of Gordimer’s passing in 2014. There is one quality that is perhaps more important to a writer…
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5 Months After His Selection, The Director Of The Polish Jewish Museum Waits To Be Reinstated – Here’s Why
When it opened in 2014, POLIN: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in Warsaw, was a landmark achievement. It took the participation of three separate bodies — the Polish national government, the city of Warsaw and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland — and over 20 years of talks for…
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Your Jewish Guide To Post-Season Baseball
Rosh Hashanah concluded at sundown on Tuesday and, almost on cue, the 2019 baseball postseason began. Make of that what you will but what is certain is that this postseason is featuring the best Jewish baseball there is. Of the 10 or so current major leaguers who are considered Jewish, four have standout talent and…
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Film & TV For Walter Matthau On His 99th Birthday
Even his face seemed as if could slouch. The bulbous nose, the folds of skin, the eyebrows always raised, the eternal smirk that seemed to call you a schmuck even if he never spoke that word. His voice brayed and drawled, Lower East Side schmatta salesman crossed with W.C. Fields. He was the dubious wise-ass,…
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Remembering Elie Wiesel, the Moral Force Who Made Sure We Will Never Forget
Editor’s Note: Elie Wiesel was born on this day in 1928. Here’s what Michael Berenbaum had to say about his passing on July 2, 2016. Elie Wiesel, the world’s best known and most influential Holocaust survivor, is no longer. His death at 87, announced Saturday, makes us ever more acutely aware that we are coming…
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Is Antwerp Finally Ready To Reckon With Its Role In The Holocaust?
As Europe remembers the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, the history of the Holocaust remains contested and challenged. Many Europeans are still reluctant to fully own their past. In Poland, despite ample evidence of Polish collaboration with the Nazis, a recent law forbade linking the term “Polish” to concentration camps or…
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Remembering Shimon Peres, Israel’s Liberal Elder Statesman
Editor’s Note: On this day in 2016, former state president and prime minister Shimon Peres died at teh age of 93. Here’s how the Forward remembered him. Israel lost its most honored senior statesman, the last active member of its founding generation, with the death today of Shimon Peres, the former ceremonial state president and…
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Jewish Artifact Dealer To Auction Hitler’s Belongings In Germany
A military artifact dealer related to victims of the Holocaust is expected to take home millions by selling at auction his personal collection of items that belonged to Adolf Hitler. Craig Gottlieb, who, according to a press release, is of Jewish descent and lost family members in the Shoah, is auctioning off a military visor…
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Catching My Breath At Sinai On Rosh Hashanah
“Got a second?” I asked Dr. Doug, measuring the time with great care. I lay on a gurney and flipped on the speaker. The chief surgeon, his white coat identifying him as “Ram Reddy” stood over me. Ready. My ATT signal wasn’t working at Mount Sinai (the one on Madison Avenue and 101st Street) so…
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