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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Music
The Beastie Boys Rap On The Making Of ‘Paul’s Boutique’
After the release of “Licensed to Ill” the Beastie Boys’ 1986 debut studio album, the New York-bred hip hoppers had the world at their feet. But with expectations for a follow-up dizzyingly high, the sophomore record, “Paul’s Boutique” was a flop when it came out in 1989. Its reputation has been restored in the years…
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When Chagall Battled For Russia’s Soul
When it was over and done with, perhaps the main thing that stood out about the Soviet Union was its success in restricting the character of its citizens. As Masha Gessen wrote in her 2016 book “The Future is History,” in every totalitarian state “The shaping of the New Man is the regime’s explicit project.”…
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Everything Jewish In Slate’s New American Songbook
On October 18, 2018 Slate revealed their “New American Songbook,” drawn from the insights of critics and musicians including Chuck Klosterman, Carl Wilson and The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay. As is typical, Jews over-performed, even beating out those famous Swedish masters of Pop Max Martin and Dr. Luke. Of the 30 tracks to be…
The Latest
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How Lovely P.G. Wodehouse Was — Such A Shame About The Anti-Semitism
On October 15, Westminster Abbey in London announced plans to dedicate a memorial to P.G. Wodehouse, the humorist whose characters Jeeves and Bertie Wooster have amused millions. Among reported devotees were many readers of Jewish origin, from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein to the classicist Abraham Wasserstein (1921-1995) of the Hebrew University. Wodehouse, who died in 1975…
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Switzerland’s Oldest Shtetls Are Working To Keep The Culture Alive
18 Miles northwest of Zurich are two shtetls whose homes, synagogues and cemetery survived World War II. And yet, they’re Jewish ghost towns. Only a vanishingly small number of the villages’ once thriving Jewish population remain in the area and the culture they supported is on life support. But a few Jews are hoping to…
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Israel’s First Jesus Museum Shows How He (And First Century Jews) Lived
In June the first Israeli exhibit devoted to the life of Jesus of Nazareth opened at the Terra Sancta Museum in the eastern part of Jerusalem’s Old City. But while visitors might expect remnants of the True Cross or other props from the Passion, this exhibit, “Daily Life at the Time of Jesus,” has a…
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Why You Should Never Date A Man In A Fedora
There’s no reason for anyone to wear a fedora. To me, when a male peer dons a fedora, he is saying either “I have no social graces and mine is a life of constant sorrow ” or “I am aware that fedoras are depraved, yet I flout social convention the same way I would flout…
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75 Years Later, The Terror Of The Roman Ghetto Raid Remains
For 87 years, Signora Speranza Sonnino has awoken to the sounds of the ghetto. Located on the banks of the Tiber near the city center, this area takes it name from the 300-plus years in which the Jews of Rome were penned in here by Papal decree. When the walls of the ghetto had been…
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Art A Dutch Art Restitution Project Is Reuniting Jews With Nazi-Looted Work
While it has only existed for nine years, the Dutch restitution project, Museale Verwervingen is already close to completing its mission to find and return art stolen from Jewish families by Nazis and their collaborators. 172 pieces from 42 Dutch museums and the Royal Collection have been identified as potentially looted. Many of the items,…
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Long Before ‘Oklahoma!’ There Was A Real Jewish Oklahoma
If, as Oscar Hammerstein II wrote in “Oklahoma!”, “the farmer and the cowman should be friends,” a hoedown was probably the least likely place for them to voice their grievances. No matter how catchy Richard Rodgers’ melody for the inviting square dance staged by Agnes de Mille, the menacing menfolk most certainly would have required…
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Has Haruki Murakami Written His First Jewish Novel? Kind Of.
Killing Commendatore By Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen Alfred A. Knopf, 704 pages, $30 Around the time of the Anschluss, the 1938 Nazi takeover of Austria, a famous Japanese painter living in Vienna is entangled in an abortive assassination plot. His girlfriend, a resistance member, is captured, tortured and killed by…
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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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