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
-
For July 4, Irving Berlin’s most American song
I have always been dubious of the idea of “American Culture.” America, being, since its inception, a land of immigrants constantly in demographic and ethnic flux. And this is a good thing, indeed, the idea of a country founded upon legal and philosophical principles, as opposed to ethnic or linguistic concerns, is the fundamental promise…
-
A Nice Jewish Guy Built A Booming Fireworks Business. Then the Tsarnaev Brothers Walked In.
The fireworks industry in America is dominated almost entirely by big-name, old-time Italian families whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers mastered the craft in Italy and brought that knowledge to the United States. There are the Zambellis of New Castle, Pennsylvania; the Rozzis of Cincinnati, and the Cartolanos of Chicago. The Grucci family, based in New York…
-
7 Arrested After Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’ Found Vandalized
Seven people were arrested early Tuesday morning after graffiti was discovered on Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Gate” sculpture in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Police responding to a trespassing call arrived at the park shortly after midnight and found that the sculpture, known colloquially as “The Bean,” had been tagged with white spray paint CBS Chicago reported. The…
The Latest
-
Neil Gaiman’s ‘The Sandman’ Gets Netflix Series Order
The miniseries adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s “Good Omens” made amusing headlines in June when a group of concerned Christians petitioned Netflix to cancel the show for portraying its main characters — an angel and a devil — as friends and depicting the Antichrist as a “normal kid.” There was only one problem:…
-
‘The Seinfeld Chronicles’ Turns 30 — But Maybe We Should Wait To Celebrate
My mother recorded every episode of “Seinfeld” on VHS; she thought the show would never last and wanted to document its brief existence. 30 years ago, in July of 1989, her estimation appeared to be correct. Based on the performance of “The Seinfeld Chronicles,” the tepidly-received pilot of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s show about…
-
How Immigrant Jews Learned that Marrying for Love Would Make Them American
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Baltimore’s Moses Montefiore Congregation was the site of a most unusual wedding on October 12, 1902. The festivities began in ordinary fashion as guests gathered to attend the nuptials of Marie Roypen and Samuel Oren, two young Jewish immigrants. However, the wedding quickly took a shocking turn….
-
A White Supremacist Murderer Devastated Chicago 20 Years Ago. Why Didn’t Anything Change?
Just before sunset on July 2, 1999, a Ford Crown Vic approached 15-year-old Ephraim Wolfe in Chicago’s West Rogers Park. A bullet had just torn a dime-sized hole in Wolfe’s leg, a couple of inches below the knee. The friend with whom he’d been walking had run to a nearby house for help, and Wolfe…
-
In ‘The Other Story’ Faith And Family Collide
When children leave the insular world of the Ultra-Orthodox, many parents sit shiva for them. Some choose to not even speak the child’s name once they’ve left the fold. When children leave the secular sphere of their parents, the shock to the system is often no less pronounced and may be more punctuated with denial…
-
Books The Dangers Of Female Pleasure – And Rage. A Q&A With Jennifer Weiner
Jennifer Weiner, best-selling novelist, has been known to be outspoken about inequalities in publishing and in the consideration of women’s work. This is what Weiner told me she wants her obituary to read when we caught up last week. And unlike the obit your favorite male novelist is probably composing for himself, Weiner’s is 100%…
-
We Failed To Save Refugees From the Holocaust. We’re Failing Again Today.
In “Americans and the Holocaust,” a special exhibition now on display at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, there is a memorable depiction of the obstacles that confronted Jews desperate to flee Europe as the Nazis marched across the Continent. The waiting list for a life-saving visa to the United States is illustrated by…
-
Books Publisher Drops ‘How They Rule The World’ Book After Being Told It Had Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories
(JTA) — A major British publisher ceased producing copies of a Spanish author book, which critics said contains anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Penguin Random House UK on Thursday announced it would no longer print and ship Pedro Baños’ “How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies of Global Power,” which was published in English in…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
- 2
Books In ‘Something We Said,’ Richard Pryor’s daughter finds words to discuss the unspeakable
- 3
Opinion It’s time for Jews who love Israel to give up on Zionism
- 4
Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump announces deal with Iran is ‘now complete’
-
Fast Forward Jane Yolen, children’s book author whose ‘The Devil’s Arithmetic’ became a Holocaust classic, dies at 87
-
Fast Forward Hebrew Union College claims Ohio’s charity-law suit violates its First Amendment rights
-
Fast Forward 6 months after her father was killed at Bondi Beach, Sheina Gutnick has become a leading antisemitism advocate in Australia