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
-
I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
-
Honoring The Legends Of The Maccabiah Games
Jane Katz was wearing red. But she remembers the first jacket she wore at the Maccabiah Games — it was made for a man. This was not a good idea to the pioneering athlete. “I believe the first Title IX really began at the Maccabiah Games,” she said, good-naturedly at a remarkable and unusual New…
-
Art How A German Art Collective Got Neo-Nazis To Identify Themselves
Following this August’s far-right rallies in Chemnitz, Germany, many participants got off easy. Of the estimated 7,000 attendees, many of whom were caught using illegal Nazi salutes and accosting immigrants, nearly all evaded arrest and, crucially, identification. Now, The Daily Beast reports that an effort by the German leftist art group the Center for Political…
The Latest
-
Art The NRA Will Remove Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’ From Its Scare Ad
The National Rifle Association has removed an image of Anish Kapoor’s sculpture, “Cloud Gate” from an advertisement that, according to the Genesis Award-winning artist, “perverts everything that ‘Cloud Gate’ — and America — stands for.” The removal follows a legal battle that began this summer The Guardian reports. The one-minute ad titled “The Clenched Fist…
-
Google’s Celebrating Nelly Sachs’ Birthday — Here’s What You Should Know About Her
If you are one of the 3.5 billion people who use Google.com today, you’ll see a somewhat cryptic Google Doodle of a typewriter in front of two cityscapes. That’s because December 10 marks the 127th birthday of Nelly Sachs, a German-born Jewish poet and refugee to Sweden who was honored by her adoptive country with…
-
Film & TV What’s Wrong With ‘Schindler’s List?’ Kind Of A Lot
Now that “Schindler’s List,” Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning 1993 film, is being rereleased 25 years after its premiere and nearly two months after the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in US history, it’s probably time to revisit the second opinions. At the time of the film’s initial release, detractors in the Jewish community were many. So many in…
-
Music Drake Leads The Jews In The 2019 Grammy Nominations
If you’re one Aubrey Graham — known to the masses by the mononym Drake — you may be wondering how you could outdo yourself this year. In January of 2018, after two solid years fueling countless internet memes with “Hotline Bling,” you were nominated for five Grammys and won two. How could your 2019 be…
-
Film & TV Stephen Miller’s Uncle Has A Message For Him: Get Married And Get Empathy
No one really wants unsolicited relationship advice from his uncle, but White House Advisor Stephen Miller is getting just that for Hanukkah. On a December 6 episode of Vox Media’s “Consider This,” Miller’s uncle, Dr. David Glosser, who made headlines earlier this year for an op-ed criticizing his nephew’s immigration policies, advises Miller to “find…
-
Theater LaGuardia High School’s ‘Sound Of Music’ Scraps Nazi Symbols
Tonight marks the opening of LaGuardia High School’s production of “The Sound of Music.” Audiences can expect the rousing score of Richard Rodgers, the inspiring words of Oscar Hammerstein – but if they come looking for historical accuracy, they may leave disappointed. The New York Daily News heard from students at LaGuardia, a New York…
-
Music The Secret Jewish History of Roger Daltrey
In his new memoir, “Thanks a Lot, Mr. Kibblewhite: My Story” (Henry Holt) – a horribly titled but entertaining and revealing read — Roger Daltrey gives his version of the story of the rock band, the Who, territory that his bandmate and on-again, off-again friend and collaborator, Pete Townshend, already reviewed in his own chronicle,…
-
On Hanukkah: Why We Miss The Seleucids
In the words of Ross Douthat, opinion columnist at The Times: “[W]e miss the WASPs — because we feel, at some level, that their more meritocratic and diverse and secular successors rule us neither as wisely nor as well.” On Hanukkah, we Jews desperately miss Antiochus XIII. For the Jewish people, Hanukkah is a deeply…
-
Theater Amy Heckerling Wants To Give Us A Different Singing Cher In ‘Clueless: The Musical’
It took a pessimistic girl from New York to make two of the most penetrating satires of sunny California ever committed to film. I speak of course of filmmaker Amy Heckerling, director of 1982’s “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and 1995’s “Clueless.” In a December 5 profile by The New York Times’ Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Heckerling…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV Netflix’s newest Israeli show has nothing to do with Israel
-
Fast Forward Jill Sobule, pop star who also composed songs for a new ‘Yentl,’ dies at 66
-
Yiddish צווישן טרער און מוט — צווישן געדענקען און אומאָפּהענגיקייטBetween tears and courage — between memory and resilience
הירהורים צום 77סטן געבוירן־טאָג פֿון מדינת־ישׂראל
-
Opinion Ireland’s prime minister gave condolences for Hitler’s death — here’s why that’s a contemporary problem
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism