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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Salman Rushdie Talks Philip Roth, Mel Brooks And Bagels
Salman Rushdie is on the phone, and there is much I’d like to ask. For starters: Did Bob Dylan deserve the Nobel? On second thought, maybe better to go with the old Forward standard: What’s your favorite bagel? After all, Rushdie is aware that the truth of a character often lies in the details. That…
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Film & TV ‘Moynihan’ Celebrates A Different Kind Of Politician
What would today’s Democratic Party, with its progressive and moderate divisions, make of Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Maybe more to the point: What would he make of the state of our politics today? These are some of the questions raised by “Moynihan,” a new documentary about the long and varied career of the titular senator, diplomat,…
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‘Twilight Zone’ For Brett Kavanaugh? Rod Serling Is Turning Over In His Grave.
Anne Serling, the daughter of “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling is speaking out against the way Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has invoked her father’s iconic series. Referring to accusations made by Julie Swetnick on September 26, 2018, Kavanaugh mocked the allegations, which describe his high school circle as having engaged in nonconsensual group sex…
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Film & TV ‘Scaffolding’ Shows Another Side Of Israeli Masculinity
This weekend much of America was interrogating questions of masculinity. Following Brett Kavanaugh’s explosive display at his Senate hearings on Thursday, when toxic masculinity and male privilege seized the dais, many men and women are scrambling to find a suitable, constructive alternative. Writer-director Matan Yair’s debut feature film, “Scaffolding,” which premiered in New York September…
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Anne Frank Was Remarkable. The Graphic Adaptation Of Her Diary Masks Her Brilliance.
ANNE FRANK’S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION Adapted by Ari Folman Illustrated by David Polonsky Pantheon, 160 pages, $24.95 When I think of what Anne Frank looked like, I think of her eyes. In photographs they are deep-set and transparent, thoughtful and often joyful. Looks deceive, but in Frank’s gaze it is possible to locate the…
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Q & A: Rebecca Traister On Women’s Rage
Rebecca Traister and I spoke about women’s anger on an angry day, during an exceptionally angry week. It was the last Tuesday in September. The evening before, in the wake of the Deborah Ramirez’s allegation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had exposed himself to her, Kavanaugh and his wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, had given…
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UB40 Has A Bit Of A Jewish Past — Along With A Role In Kavanaugh Drama
It appears the young Brett Kavanaugh liked reggae — but maybe not as much as he liked beer. It’s now emerged that the embattled Supreme Court nominee was involved in a bar fight with a man he believed to be the lead singer of the British reggae group UB40. Oy. We could use a drink….
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The Secret Jewish History Of Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, the French singer and songwriter of Armenian origin who died on October 1 at age 94, made a career out of incarnating vulnerable minorities. Aznavour was a fragile, diminutive man with haggard, lined features, even in his thirties. His large, liquid eyes, capable of expressing a range of emotions from rapture to terror,…
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The Secret Jewish History Of ‘A Star Is Born’
Like the cicadas that spend most of their lives underground, emerging only every 13 or 17 years (and how they decide is for you to know and me to find out), the movie musical “A Star Is Born” gets remade every few decades or so. The latest incarnation, starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, is…
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The Path to Enlightenment: Muslims, Brothers, Jews
During a recent visit to Paris, I had a remarkable encounter that affirmed my faith in humanity. At a dinner party hosted by dear friends Annie Cohen-Solal and Marc Mézard, my wife and I met two extraordinary octogenarians whom Le Monde calls “les jumeaux de l’Islam,” the twins of Islam.) Adel Rifaat and Bahgat Elnadi…
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Music How An Irish Playwright Found The Soul Of Bob Dylan
About a quarter way into Conor McPherson’s play with music, “Girl From the North Country” (running through Sunday, December 9, at the Public Theater in lower Manhattan), a bible salesman unaccountably mutters this apparent non sequitur: Big storm’s coming, my boy. Here. Europe. Everywhere. You ever wonder what woulda happened if the Jews met the…
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