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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Film & TV
‘Law & Order: SVU’ Just Dropped Its Most Jewish Episode
While Dick Wolf’s “Law & Order” universe has had its share of legendary Yids from Jerry Orbach’s Lenny Briscoe to Steven Hill’s Adam Schiff (the fictional DA, not the the expected chairman of the House Intelligence Committee), “Law & Order: SVU,” the only show left running, has been noticeably lacking in the Jew department since…
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Film & TV Should We Be Playing The ‘Schindler’s List’ Theme At Weddings?
On December 2, Sir Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, married the lawyer Anya Deutsch in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in downtown New York, to the strains of the theme from Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List” played by an orchestral ensemble. On such a joyous occasion, one might wonder about the choice of…
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A 17th Century Book On The Stock Market Is Up For Big Money At Sotheby’s
While Jewish economists are nothing new, readers of the business section may be surprised to learn the man who wrote the first book on the stock market was writing for a Jewish audience. Bloomberg reports that on Tuesday December 4 Joseph Penso de la Vega’s 1688 book “Confusion of Confusions” went on sale at Sotheby’s…
The Latest
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Film & TV ‘Mrs. Maisel Is Just As Good — And Just As Annoying — The Second Time Around
Oy vey! We had to wipe a little shmutz off our tchotchkes, but you better bissel–gornisht–treyf believe it — the second season of Amazon Prime’s smash-hit show “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is just as bagel as ever. Jews! If you enjoy the tempo of crack-cocaine addicts, or podcasts played at 2x speed, you will enjoy the…
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Art The Art Institute Of Chicago’s New Website Has Over 50K Public Domain Artworks — Here’s What’s Jewish
The trouble with museums is they tend to stay in one place. While any museum’s permanent collection makes up the bulk of the institution’s bragging rights, those of us who don’t live near the Louvre, MOMA or the Art Institute of Chicago don’t have ready access to the masterpieces on display. Luckily for us, that…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History of ‘The White Shadow’
Forty years ago this fall, an unassuming yet groundbreaking CBS-TV series called “The White Shadow,” about an inner-city high-school basketball team coached by a former white NBA player, made its debut, bringing the realities of racism, alcoholism, drugs, gang violence, domestic violence, student violence against teachers, student sex with teachers, teen pregnancy, teen death, sexually…
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The World Set Rules For Returning Nazi-Looted Art. Are They Working?
In November, the Austrian government revealed that nearly two decades ago it returned the wrong Nazi-looted Gustav Klimt painting to the wrong Jewish family. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is working to return cultural items looted by colonialists to their African countries of origin. Elaborate, precise heists are targeting Chinese artifacts in museums across the globe,…
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Art Can Virtual Reality Bring Palestinians And Jews Closer Together?
Raji Sabateen, 56, lives in the village of Husan in the Palestinian West Bank, a place where few Israelis dare to visit. But over the past five months, thousands of Israelis have spent time inside Sabateen’s home through the power of virtual reality. Sabateen’s home is featured at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum as part of “Eye…
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Film & TV Chronicles Of John Garfield’s Death Foretold In His Final Film
As in his earlier hit “Body and Soul” (1948), John Garfield’s final film “He Ran All the Way” (1951) begins with the actor waking up from an apparently very unpleasant dream. While the return from a nightmare is not an uncommon twist in those older Hollywood movies that veer into darker territory — the familiar…
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Should Linda Fairstein’s Involvement In The Central Park Five Case Keep Her From A Mystery Writing Award?
Mystery novels can be morally dubious. They often use horrific incidents to entertain and sometimes to titillate their readers. We can continue to enjoy them without too much compunction, however, knowing that the events are made up. So what happens when someone who supervised a real-world miscarriage of justice is being honored for her work…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History Of SpongeBob Squarepants
On November 26 Stephen Hillenburg, the unassuming marine biologist who reached millions with his cartoon creation SpongeBob Squarepants passed away from complications of ALS. Hillenburg was 57. Eternally optimistic, absorbent, yellow and porous, Hillenburg’s signature creation truly needs no introduction, nor does his permanent residence in a pineapple under the sea. But how did such…
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Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
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News How Mamdani became New York’s next mayor, with Jews divided between fierce opposition and fiery support
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Opinion I’m an Israeli who lives in New York. Here’s why I’m voting for Mamdani
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Culture Mamdani quoted Eugene Debs in his victory speech — there’s a long Jewish history there
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Culture Mamdani’s first statement on antisemitism as mayor-elect got some weird pushback
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Film & TV On the trail of a priceless dove, a group of Palestinians and Israelis find that peace is for the birds
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Culture Could poetry revive Yitzhak Rabin’s legacy among young American Jews?
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