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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Remembering Judith Kerr, Whose Children’s Books Turned Anguish Into Hope
The beloved children’s book author Judith Kerr, who died on May 22 at age 95, proved that one way of coping with the tragedies of modern Jewish history was with an appetite for creative work. Born Anna Judith Gertrud Helene Kerr to an uncommonly creative German Jewish family, she would write and illustrate such endearing…
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Bob Dylan’s 10 Most Jewish Songs
Bob Dylan turns 78 today. In honor of that auspicious occasion, we revisit his 10 most Jewish songs.” While Bob Dylan has, throughout his life and career, engaged in all sorts of mythologizing and playful biographical falsification, it has never been in the service of denying his heritage. This son of a middle-class appliance salesman…
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The Secret Jewish History Of ‘Alien’
On the surface, there is nothing at all Jewish about Ridley Scott’s “Alien” (1979) which celebrates its fortieth birthday on May 25. But probe a little deeper and the film and its subsequent franchise owes its conception and execution to the work and ideas of many Jews, as well as bearing Jewish symbolism. Generically speaking,…
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Film & TV The Jewish Spy Who Kept Us Safe At Home
A veteran filmmaker looks at baseball catcher-turned-spy Moe Berg
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Film Forum’s Yiddish Film Series Speaks To The Jewish Soul
New York’s Film Forum set itself a real challenge in naming its series on Yiddish Cinema something as definitive as “The Jewish Soul.” Who could agree on what that soul looks like — and how could any lineup do justice to its ancient nature? While not comprehensive, the six films, presented by Kino Lorber from…
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How I Learned To Speak Yiddish And Love The Forverts
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It is part of a series on Forverts memories written by and about present and past Forverts writers and editors. Just a few months after I began studying Yiddish, I bought my first copy of the Forverts at a newsstand in midtown Manhattan. The headline on the…
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Scenes From The Forverts: When Hasidic Proofreaders And Secular Editors Went Head-To-Head
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It is part of a series on Forverts memories written by and about present and past Forverts writers and editors. By the time I began working at the Forverts as an associate editor under Boris Sandler, I had missed out on the paper’s venerable traditions of Yiddish…
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Kafka Confidant Max Brod’s Stolen Archive Is Headed To Israel
In April, a court in Zurich ordered a huge cache of Franz Kafka’s manuscripts transferred from Switzerland to the National Library of Israel. Now, the personal papers of Kafka’s confidant, Max Brod, who safeguarded those powerful texts, are headed there too. In a May 21 ceremony at the Israeli ambassador to Germany’s residence in Berlin,…
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Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Love Affair With The Forward
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It is part of a series on Forverts memories written by and about present and past Forverts writers and editors. “I can say I have achieved one thing in my life,” said Isaac Bashevis Singer. “My chaos has reached perfection!” This is what Bashevis Singer declared whenever…
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Roman Polanski Made A Film About The Dreyfus Affair. Will Anyone Distribute It?
Since 1978, director and convicted sex offender Roman Polanski has lived as a fugitive in Europe, where he has continued to make movies. But it seems that post #MeToo, securing distribution for Polanski’s films requires a degree of extreme discretion, even on the continent he calls home. On May 18, the first Saturday of the…
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I Edited The Forverts For 18 Years, But I Never Forgot My First Day
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It is part of a series on Forverts memories written by and about present and past Forverts writers and editors. It’s often said that one’s first impressions are usually the strongest, although not necessarily the most precise. Although I experienced a number of memorable moments during my…
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