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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Theater Jason Alexander lives out a lifelong dream, playing Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
'I wanted to do a piece that is proudly Semitic' said the Tony winner and ‘Seinfeld' star
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Arsène Tchakarian, Last Surviving Member Of French Resistance Unit, Fought Relentlessly For Liberty
Arsène Tchakarian, a French Resistance fighter who survived the execution of much of his unit in 1944, died August 4 at the age of 101. He was the last surviving member of the Groupe Manouchian, a communist Resistance faction composed mainly of immigrants and Jews that did substantial damage to the Nazi occupation of France…
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The Secret Jewish History Of ELO
For the first time in nearly 40 years, rock auteur and Hall of Famer Jeff Lynne is touring North America with his band ELO, the English group that churned out a bevy of huge pop hits — including “Evil Woman,” “Livin’ Thing,” and “Mr. Blue Sky” — in the second half of the 1970s. Jeff…
The Latest
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Film & TV How ‘BlackkKlansman’ Abandons Crucial Conversation About Race and Complicity
As I watched “BlackkKlansman” in a Colorado theater filled with white folks, I felt bored and extremely irritated. While Spike Lee’s latest joint is aesthetically beautiful, the content feels boring and reductive. I don’t think any black or Jewish person needs a flashy movie just to tell them that the Klu Klux Klan is dangerous….
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“American History X” Director Tony Kaye’s Newest Film Will Star A Robot
Talk about your inclusion riders! Director Tony Kaye is hoping to bring greater representation for robots in film by casting an artificially intelligent actor in his newest feature, “2nd Born.” The idea, co-conceived by the film’s producer Sam Khoze, is designed to get the attention of the Screen Actors Guild, the motion picture actor’s union,…
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TZEDEK: What Does ‘Justice’ Really Mean Anyway?
With all eyes on the U.S. Supreme Court, now is the time to think about justice — both the noun and the idea. For centuries, tzedek, the Hebrew word for justice, and its close relative, tzedakah, charity, have attracted the great minds of Judaism, from the prophet Isaiah to Maimonides — what we might think…
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Meet The Radical Nurse Who Joined The Spanish Civil War
In the summer of 1936, when Ruth Rebecca Davidow was 25, American newspapers began to report political chaos in Spain: General Francisco Franco had launched a coup against the democratically-elected Spanish Republic with support from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Less than a year later, Davidow, a working-class Jewish nurse, set sail for Spain to…
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Art For Israelis, These Photos Are Most Iconic
Google the words “iconic Israeli photo,” and a predictable image comes up. It is the photograph of the three awestruck Israeli paratroopers against the Western Wall, taken just after Israel captured it from Jordan in 1967. Photographed by David Rubinger, who died last year, the picture symbolizes Israel’s triumph in the Six Day War, a…
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Film & TV “Memoir Of War” Brings Occupied France To Life
There are moments in “Memoir of War” where you’d be forgiven for experiencing déjà vu. I’ve seen this empty Paris cityscape before in Antonioni’s “L’Eclisse.” I’ve endured this long, tracking shot through a crowd in Godard’s “Weekend.” I’ve heard the consonant voiceover in Alain Resnais and Marguerite Duras’ “Hiroshima Mon Amour.” But if you look…
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Film & TV Yes, Sci-Fi Has An Anti-Semitism Problem — But Not The One You Think
Science fiction universes ought to aspire to “Star Trek’s” charge to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” So why do so many works of sci-fi seem content to timidly remain with the same ugly stereotypes we have here on earth?…
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This Actor Tackles Jewish Stereotypes — By Performing Them
Superstitions are strange things that often produce even stranger talismans. In Poland, one common type of good-luck token comes in unsettling forms: Paintings, magnets and statues of Jewish people, dressed like Shalom Aleichem characters, counting out gold coins. It sounds like a throwback to a darker time, but, much like the mascot of the Cleveland…
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The Secret Jewish History Of Robert De Niro
Actor Robert De Niro, who turns 75 years old August 17, is perhaps best known for playing the roles of Italian gangsters and assorted crazies in his much lauded, 55-year career in film. An entire subgenre of his work, however, has been devoted to portraying Jewish characters: gangsters and otherwise. Far from being typecast in…
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