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
-
In place of a proud emblem of Jewish immigration in NYC, million-dollar condos and a private garden
Gentrification comes for the Bialystoker Center and Home for the Aged
-
Film & TV Movie News: The Meta-Nostalgia of “Ready Player One,” Corey Feldman Survives a Stabbing
Do you remember when Ridley Scott directed a film about Exodus, featuring Christian Bale as Moses? I didn’t until about five minutes ago, when “Exodus: Gods and Kings” (2014) came up in a Google search. I am dumbstruck as to why I went to go see it in theaters, but I have a feverish memory…
-
Are These The Best Biblical Novels Of All Time?
With Passover fast approaching, “Exodus” has been on my mind. No, not the biblical story; the 1958 novel by Leon Uris that served as a sort of bible to the generation of American Jews who had survived the Holocaust, as well as their children. My mom used to carry a tattered copy to the beach…
The Latest
-
My First Pesach In America — In 1883
This story was originally published in the Forward on April 7, 1936 Once upon a long time ago, 53 years ago in late April 1883, I found myself in my new hometown of New York City, about to spend my first Pesach in America. I’d disembarked from my ship ten months prior in June of…
-
Art What Does It Mean To Inhabit A Jewish Place?
The nicest way to view the Jewish Museum’s new exhibit “Marc Camille Chaimowicz: Your Place or Mine,” the London-based artist’s first solo show in the United States, is alone. As the last straggler at a recent preview showing of the exhibit, I wandered in near solitude through the playfully arranged last section, called “Le Jardin…
-
At Millennial Women’s Conference, The Forverts Finds A New Audience
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Last Sunday, March 25, I attended a unique one-day conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. organized by and for millennial women. The annual event, called OWN IT, attracts female students from ten universities every year. As the first woman editor of the Yiddish Forward I was…
-
WATCH: Yiddish Writer Yechiel Shraybman Describes His Moldovan Shtetl
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. A squeaky well, an old Jewish judge who refuses to open his eyes — these are the images that the writer Yekhiel Shraybman brings to life in vivid vignettes about his Moldavian hometown, Rashkev. In this video Shraybman describes his years in the Yiddish theater in Bucharest,…
-
The Secret Jewish History Of Baseball’s Opening Day
Like a New Year celebration, Major League Baseball’s annual opening day brings with it an opportunity to start afresh: to leave the past behind and to begin anew with a clean slate. Every team begins the new season as a reborn entity: The reigning World Champions and last year’s losers are equal going into the…
-
Why Vowels Matter So Much At The Passover Seder — Really!
Some Seders focus on the plot of the Haggadah — the hunger-fueled journey to Egypt, the 400 years of ensuing enslavement, the long and brutal struggle against Pharaoh’s cruelty and, at last, the triumphant Exodus. But in families like mine, the main event is not plot, it’s the vowels. Dinner is postponed indefinitely as relatives…
-
A Devastating History Of Genocide — In One Ukrainian Town
ANATOMY OF A GENOCIDE: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A TOWN CALLED BUCZACZ By Omer Bartov Simon & Schuster, 416 pages, $30 In researching the Ukrainian town of Buczacz, Omer Bartov wanted to uncover his own family history. But only a few traces of that history remained. What “Anatomy of a Genocide” provides instead is…
-
See ‘RBG’ The Movie – Plus Jane Eisner In Conversation With The Directors
On May 1, come to the Marlene Meyerson JCC in Manhattan to see “RBG” before it arrives in the theaters. After the screening, Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner will interview the directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West. They will discuss the making of the film and how a Jewish lawyer ended up revolutionizing gender imbalance in…
-
An Amazing Escape From Yemen – Dan Friedman In Conversation With Mohammed Al Samawi
The Talmud says, “Whoever saves a life, it is as if he has saved an entire world.” But how many of us would actually save a life? Against the odds, four strangers of three faiths worked together to save Mohammed Al Samawi, reaching out through social media. Dan Friedman, executive editor and former culture editor…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Trump says Jews would deserve much of the blame if he loses
- 2
Opinion This GOP candidate has always been antisemitic — so why are Republicans only panicking about him now?
- 3
Culture Hitler is trending on TikTok again — and they’re trying to make him seem like a nice guy
- 4
Opinion A daring attack on Hezbollah may reveal Israel’s strengths — and its most terrifying weakness
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Mayor of Muslim-majority Michigan city endorses Trump, in new sign of Gaza war’s influence on presidential race
-
Fast Forward Antisemitic incidents jumped 63% in 2023, according to FBI data
-
Opinion Not just Trump: Antisemitism is pervasive in the Republican Party
-
Fast Forward Springfield, Ohio, rabbi will meet with local Haitian leaders after disparaging community
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism