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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Who To Read For Women’s History Month, Part Two: Nadezhda Mandelstam
When it came to Nadezhda Mandelstam, the scholar Clarence Brown might have put it best: She was a “vinegary, Brechtian, steel-hard woman of great intelligence, limitless courage, no illusions, permanent convictions and a wild sense of the absurdity of life.” Or perhaps it was the poet Seamus Heaney, who wrote of Mandelstam’s transformation into a…
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Lou Reed’s Archive Arrives At The Library For The Performing Arts
To browse the stacks at the New York Public Library is to take a walk on the mild side. But as of March 15, when The Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center opened its Lou Reed Archive, that’s changed. The archive comprises over 600 hours of live recordings, demos and interviews of the…
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Filmmaker Alison Klayman On Her Year With Steve Bannon
Alison Klayman is an accomplished and decorated documentarian. Her filmography includes the award-winning “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” (2012), which followed the titular Chinese activist and artist, and “Take Your Pills” (2018), an expose on Adderall addiction. But none of her ambitious and intimate films could prepare her for her latest subject. In “The Brink,” which…
The Latest
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Who To Read For Women’s History Month, Part One: Tillie Olsen
Tillie Olsen can be difficult to read. The content of what she wrote isn’t the issue; her subjects could be grim, yes, but in a way that demands rather than repels attention. But Olsen’s visceral prose — her willingness to adopt a character’s perspective so fully as to surrender lucidity — can be a barrier….
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The Secret Jewish History Of Hawaii
There once was a land ruled by a King David. And unto the king from beyond the land came a wise man who was learned in the traditions of an ancient, foreign people; skilled at fortune-telling, and able to read the stars. The king took a liking to the man and spent many hours alone…
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Theater Purim in Paris: Rachel Félix and the Paradox of French Anti-Semitism
Paris is crammed with sites of Jewish interest. While some are obvious — the shops on the Rue des Rosiers or the Holocaust memorial at Drancy — others come as more of a surprise. The Comédie-Française belongs to this latter group. The nation’s oldest state theater, founded in the 17th century under the aegis of…
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When Dublin’s Jewish Mayor Conquered Manhattan
On March 16, 1957, in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, parade bands on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue blared classic Irish tunes, while marchers carried American and Irish flags. The scene was, according to The New York Times, a “musical river of green filled with thousands of merry lads and lasses.” Fueling the excitement, the lord mayor…
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The Case For A Queen Esther Disney Film
With the acquisition of Lucasfilm, the multi-billion dollar handshake that forged the Marvel-Disney partnership and an incipient deal with Fox, Mickey Mouse owns almost every brand worth having. This mass cultural monopolization has its benefits. For the first time in anyone’s lifetime a film could now, without breach of current copyright law, show stormtroopers from…
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No One Asked, But Here’s David Mamet’s Take On The Admissions Scandal Anyway
Like his characters, David Mamet lacks a filter. The celebrated playwright feels the near-constant urge to opine on issues that don’t require his input. Race relations. “Brain-Dead Liberals” . Sexual abuse in Hollywood. Now Mamet is tackling the scandal du jour: A $25 million college admissions bribery plot uncovered by the FBI and revealed in…
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Theater The Drama Of The Admissions Scandal Gets Its Time On Stage In ‘Admissions’
Yesterday, during rehearsals for Theater Wit’s production of Joshua Harmon’s “Admissions,” a drama about parents’ bullheaded efforts to get their child into his college of choice, the news broke among the cast and creative team. A wide-ranging sting operation conducted by federal authorities led to the indictment of 50 people —- including the actresses Felicity…
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Trump Doesn’t Want Einstein As His Pilot — Here’s Why
In his latest nonsensical Twitter tirade, Trump lamented how complicated airplane design is getting. Apropos of nothing, the Leader of the Free World spewed the following forth onto the internet: Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time…
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