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
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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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How Hasidic Sages Supported Transgender People — 200 Years Ago
Editor’s note: We are republishing this interview with Abby Stein in honor of her new book, “Becoming Eve,” being published this week. This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Abby Stein, who grew up in a rabbinical family in Williamsburg, is the most prominent Hasidic person to come out as transgender after leaving her…
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Hollywood’s Most Prolific Songwriter Celebrates 90
With two giant-size Oscar statues flanking either side of the stage of Beverly Hills’ Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, one couldn’t have asked for a better finale to an perfect evening: After all the speakers and performers ascended the stage, a film clip from “Mary Poppins” and the lyrics of “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” appeared on…
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‘The Catcher Was A Spy’ Strikes Out On Jewish Themes
There’s a moment in “The Catcher Was a Spy,” the new Paul Rudd-led biopic about the Major League catcher, polyglot and American operative, Morris “Moe” Berg that feels out of place. In the scene, Berg (Rudd) is in the cabin of a ship headed for the coast of Italy. Joining Berg is the physicist, Samuel…
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Where Are All The Women In Jewish Studies?
The Smithsonian has celebrated a new book, “Hasidism: A New History,” edited by David Biale, as a landmark. This collaborative effort of eight men has been underway for a decade, and the publication is massive: 850 pages. All written by men. The preface informs us that a distinguished female scholar of Hasidism participated extensively in…
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No, Mike Huckabee — Moses Would Be A Bad Supreme Court Pick
On Friday, June 29th, 2018, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Twitter’s least favorite purveyor of dad jokes, made a bold claim about one of our prophets on Fox News. In the aftermath of the news of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement, Huckabee, speaking to Fox’s Bill Hemmer, claimed that if Trump “put Moses up for the…
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Trump Is What Happens When We Forget #NeverForget
To state the painfully and terrifyingly obvious, the world is in a state of severe political and moral crisis — one we haven’t seen since the 1930s. The great postwar consensus, seventy years in the making, in which democracy was predominant and dictatorships had flagged, and in which cooperation replaced conflict, has been largely undone…
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How Hasidism Still Manages To Thrive
Hasidism: A New History By David Biale & 7 co-authors Princeton UniversityPress, 896 pages, $45.00 In 1770, a young man of 18, later to be known as Solomon Maimon, traveled from Nesvizh in Lithuania to the court of Dov Ber, the foremost leader of the budding Hasidic movement, in the Polish town of Mezerich. As…
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Why Everyone Is Buzzing About The Words ‘Infest’ And ‘Civility’
Language has become a flash point of the political landscape. What did it mean when first lady Melania Trump wore a jacket bearing the words “I really don’t care, do u?” to a detention center for immigrant children? What about when President Trump said immigrants would “infest” the United States, or when pundits responded to…
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Sci-Fi Visionary Harlan Ellison Reveled In His Jewishness
Harlan Ellison, the American Jewish author of speculative fiction who died on June 27 at age 84, proved that early struggles with anti-Semitism could provide literary, as well as moral, inspiration. Ellison’s dystopian science fiction landmarks included “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” The Deathbird,” and “Angry Candy.” Born in Cleveland, he was…
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Where Jewish Rights And Human Rights Intersect And Diverge
Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century By James Loeffler Yale University Press, 384 pages, $32.50 Following Winston Churchill’s prediction in 1942 that the war against fascism would “end with the enthronement of human rights,” the phrase, which had rarely been used in the discourse of international law, began to gain currency….
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Dressing Modestly Didn’t Mean What I Thought It Did
The very first time I was invited to a wedding by a peer, the ceremony was Orthodox. I am not Orthodox. But I knew how to dress the part. So the night before the wedding, I paraded my most modest clothing for Shmuel, an Orthodox friend. I chose an outfit I felt demonstrated that I…
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Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
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News As Israel attacks, what is life like for Jews in Iran?
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News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
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Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
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Opinion If war with Iran goes badly for the U.S., Jews will be the scapegoat
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Fast Forward Trump meets gratitude, criticism after claiming total destruction of Iran’s nuclear program
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Opinion The US and Israel could topple the Iranian regime. They should choose negotiation instead
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