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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Acclaimed British Novelist Howard Jacobson: ‘It’s An Anxious Time For Jews’
JTA — Howard Jacobson is a funny writer. He has penned several comedic novels, and many commentators said his 2010 Man Booker prize-winning work “The Finkler Question” was the first humorous book to win the prestigious award in decades. But Jacobson, one of the most celebrated authors in the United Kingdom and an outspoken liberal…
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Inside The Mind Of Arnold Schoenberg, The Genius Who Defined 20th Century Music
Editor’s note: Arnold Schoenberg was born on this day in 1874. 145 years later, we look back at the genius of the Austrian Jewish composer. What happens in the mind of a genius? Mozart’s mind was puerile; if his extraordinary sophistication with music extended to other aspects of his psyche, he didn’t show it. Van…
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Happy 103rd Birthday to Roald Dahl — Beloved Author and Vile Anti-Semite
Born on September 13, 1916, Roald Dahl, the beloved author of “Matilda” and “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” would have turned 100 today. It’s an anniversary we mark with admiration and a bit of uncertainty as well. For, aside from his brilliant imaginaton and wicked sense of humor, Dahl was also something of an…
The Latest
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The Odd, Jewish Story Of Hillary Clinton’s Surprise Performance Art In Venice
The day after the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, the defeated Democratic candidate, gave a steely-toned concession speech in which she proclaimed her continuing belief in American democracy. She was near tears; many, watching, wept freely. At the time, her words came across as the wrenching final statement of a figure whose successes, failings, strength…
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Why Renia Spiegel Is Being Called ‘The Polish Anne Frank’
Editor’s Note: “Renia’s Diary: A Young Girl’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust,” has been published, drawing comparisons to the diary of Anne Frank. Last year, the Forward spoke to Renia Spiegel’s sister Ariana and documentary filmmaker Tomasz Magiersk about the diary. “Listen! Listen to me and understand. Some kind of fever took over…
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Bari Weiss Has Answers, But She’s Not Asking The Right Questions
How to Fight Anti-Semitism By Bari Weiss Crown, $20, 224 pages The big question about “How to Fight Anti-Semitism,” Bari Weiss’s rallying cry against the contemporary rise of the titular prejudice is: Who is it for? The brief, stylishly designed book — the often-controversial New York Times columnist’s first, written in response to the Pittsburgh…
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How They Brought Down Harvey Weinstein And Jump-Started #MeToo
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement By Jodi Kantor & Megan Twohey Penguin Press, $28, 310 pages In “She Said,” New York Times investigative reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey raise the thorny question of whether the #MeToo movement has gone too far — or not far enough. Then…
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The Secret Jewish History of Aerosmith
Today, Joe Perry, lead guitarist for Aerosmith, celebrates his 69th birthday. Which is as good an excuse as any, we suppose, to look back on the band’s Jewish roots. Aerosmith was founded in 1970 when a then-drummer named Steve Tyler – a native of Yonkers, N.Y., who had moved to Boston – stumbled upon guitarist…
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Roman Polanski’s Dreyfus Film, Seen As Defense Against Rape Conviction, Wins Venice Award
Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy (J’Accuse),” the director and convicted child rapist’s film about the Dreyfus affair, has won a prestigious award from the Venice Film Festival. Reviews from the festival noted that, while the film was technically accomplished, Polanski had in interviews drawn direct parallels between his own case and that of…
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The Blood Libel Accusation That Inflamed America
The Accusation: Blood Libel in an American Town By Edward Berenson W.W. Norton & Company, 271 pages, $26.95 On September 22, 1928, a four-year-old girl, Barbara Griffiths, got lost in the woods around Massena, a small town in upstate New York. Hundreds of townspeople joined in the search. Hours later, someone (to this day, no…
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Remembering The Wisdom Of Sol LeWitt
Sol LeWitt was born on this date in 1928. In honor of that occasion, we’re reprinting our interview with the late artist, originally published in the Forward on March 15, 1996 “Ask me any question you want and then put it in your own words,” says Sol LeWitt brightly over the phone from Manhattan, where…
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