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
-
Theater Jason Alexander lives out a lifelong dream, playing Tevye in ‘Fiddler on the Roof’
'I wanted to do a piece that is proudly Semitic' said the Tony winner and ‘Seinfeld' star
-
The Secret Jewish History of St. Patrick’s Day
If you are Jewish and you feel drawn somehow to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, there are more than a dozen good reasons why. St. Patrick’s Day and Purim typically appear on the calendar within a few weeks of each other. In the same way that on Purim one is encouraged to drink to the point…
-
Film & TV Movie News: Steven Spielberg Helped Shia LaBeouf Get Into Yale, Tiffany Haddish Wants to Host Oscars
This week’s movie news is flush with some of our favorite movie Jews. From Shia LeBeouf — Steven Spielberg’s estranged muse — to Darren Aronofsky, whose film “Mother!” has been received with a smattering of boos, we’ve culled the best film stories from Culture and the Shmooze. Read on if you so choose! 1) Jewish…
The Latest
-
Art Architect Richard Meier Accused Of Sexual Harassment
Five women have accused Richard Meier, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect famous for designing Los Angeles’s Getty Center, of sexual misconduct, according to a March 13 New York Times article. The alleged episodes span 30 years and include descriptions of groping, indecent exposure and forcible kissing. After being informed of the allegations, Meier announced that he…
-
National Geographic’s First Jewish Woman Editor Confronts Magazine’s Past Racism
National Geographic has, since it was founded in 1888, introduced people across the world to cultures different than their own. And, in doing so, it has been racist. Thus writes Susan Goldberg, editor in chief of National Geographic, in an editorial introducing the magazine’s April issue, which is themed around race. “It hurts to share…
-
Google Translate for Yiddish? It Ain’t Worth Bupkis.
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Several years ago I wrote an article for the Forverts describing the bizarre phenomenon by which a Google search for the innocent Yiddish word “meydlekh” (girls) yielded results for pornographic websites, listings for Canadian escorts and so forth. Were pornographic websites actually advertising in Yiddish? No, it…
-
Art New Report: The Arts Contributed $763 Billion to the US Economy
The Trump administration has proposed a cut to funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and other cultural organizations in its 2019 budget — but a new report provides evidence that US cultural exports represent an extremely important sector of the economy. On March 7, Hyperallergic reported on a new study from the US…
-
Art Anish Kapoor Calls Out the NRA For Using His Sculpture in a Political Ad
Anish Kapoor, a renowned sculptor of Indian-Jewish descent who won last year’s Genesis Prize, viciously denounced the National Rifle Association nearly a year after the organization used footage of his iconic Cloud Gate sculpture in a now-infamous political advertisement. According to the Washington Post, the sculpture appears briefly on screen in last year’s “clenched fist…
-
With a New Director, Klezkanada Looks to the Future
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Since its founding in 1996, more than 10,000 people have attended Klezkanada, the annual festival of Jewish culture and Klezmer music held in Quebec’s Laurentian mountains. Despite Klezkanada’s ambitious scale (besides music it features theatrical workshops, Yiddish classes, creative writing seminars and concerts), the organization never had…
-
A Yiddish Cruise on the Danube
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. The longtime editor of the Bundist journal Lebns-Fragn and an Israel-correspondent for the Forverts, Yitzhak Luden z”l, used to say that Yiddish today outside of the Hasidic world is a language mainly spoken at festivals. Soon we’ll be able to say that it’s also spoken on river…
-
Ariana Harwicz, Laurent Binet Make Longlist For 2018 Man Booker International Prize
The longlist for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, announced today, includes a novel by Javier Ceras about Enric Marco, the Spanish man who spent three decades pretending to have survived two Nazi concentration camps; “Flights,” the latest outing of Olga Tokarczuk, whose previous book “The Books of Jacob” was an epic historical novel about…
-
How ‘This American Life’ Changed The #MeToo Conversation
“It felt so unusual to hear women talking publicly about things that women talk about with friends,” Chana Joffe-Walt said. Joffe-Walt, a producer for “This American Life,” was discussing an episode of the show that had just gone viral. She had constructed the episode, titled “Five Women,” after months of painstaking reporting, and it had…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
- 2
Fast Forward Trump AG nominee Matt Gaetz has left a trail of antisemitic comments
- 3
Opinion Trump’s first picks are die-hard Israel supporters, mocking the pro-Palestinian protest vote
- 4
Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
In Case You Missed It
-
News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
-
Opinion Congress is voting on a bill targeting pro-Palestinian groups. Israel’s example proves it’s a terrible idea
-
Fast Forward Progressive Jewish groups back Senate resolutions against arms sales to Israel
-
Fast Forward Sotheby’s to auction a Ten Commandments tablet with a disclaimer: Israel always wanted it to be put on public display
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
