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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July 12: Manhattan; Experience Fiddler On The Roof — In Yiddish
Breaking tradition, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene will perform “Fiddler on the Roof” in a different tongue. Directed by Oscar and Tony Award-winner Joel Grey, the new Yiddish translation transforms the beloved musical, which captures the mindset of Jews in the shtetl at the turn of the 20th century. Enjoy a preview performance 7 p.m….
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Film & TV Stanley Kubrick Explains The Ending Of ‘2001’ (Kind Of)
Towards the end of his career, Stanley Kubrick began presenting some of the less attractive qualities of a genius. His hygiene became dubious, he was famously gruff with reporters, allegedly abusive to his actors and notoriously gnomic when it came to interpretations of his work. So a recently unearthed clip of him explaining one of…
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Art A Comic Tells The Story Of Henry Ford And A Jewish Math Whiz
Thanks in no small part to J.D. Salinger’s “Franny and Zooey,” radio show whiz kids have long held a special spot in the Jewish-American imagination. But it may surprise some that the real world purpose of “Quiz Kids,” a 1940s trivia show, was to promote Jewish intelligence during a time when Jewish lives were most…
The Latest
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GHETTO: Why Denmark’s Use Of That Noun Should Frighten Us All
Denmark, once home to a king who famously objected to Nazi deportation plans, recently horrified the world by publicizing a “ghetto list” and enacting new laws pertaining to those who live in what the government classified as a ghetto. What does that mean, exactly? “Starting at the age of 1, ‘ghetto children’ must be separated…
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Somebody Feed Phil Season 2 Is Now Netflix’s Most Jewish Show
For the past three years, Phil Rosenthal, creator of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” has been travelling the world in search of great food and lasting friendship. A nebbish-y Anthony Bourdain, Rosenthal began his culinary tourism in 2015 with the PBS show, “I’ll Have What Phil’s Having.” This first entrée (pardon the pun) was followed up earlier…
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The Real Amy Winehouse Surfaces In New Photo Book
When we imagine Amy Winehouse, the late and troubled singer-songwriter of “Rehab,” we may imagine her jet-black bouffant or her severe eyeliner. A new photo book, out in August from Taschen, appears to challenge and, at times, reinforce that image. Simply titled “Amy Winehouse,” the book seeks to strip away the patina of makeup to…
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How David Avidan Became Hebrew’s Most Experimental Poet
A new and important translation aims to introduce readers to David Avidan, the most experimental poet in the history of Hebrew poetry, and a poet unjustly unknown to nearly all English-language readers. Avidan was also a filmmaker, a conceptual artist, and a television and radio host. In all his pursuits, he was obsessed with the…
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How Jewish Movie Moguls Quietly Helped To Fight The Nazis
Open Culture has published an article praising the Warner Brothers loud dissent against Nazis and censors in the 1930s by producing such films as “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” and the Hitler-lampooning cartoon, “Bosko’s Picture Show.” The Warners, children of Polish immigrants, were certainly outspoken among the cadre of Jewish studio heads at the time,…
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Film & TV Why Claude Lanzmann Still Matters
Claude Lanzmann, the French Jewish journalist, author, and filmmaker who died on July 5 at age 92, was not a believer in the proverb “live and let live.” As he explained in his memoir “The Patagonian Hare,” his celebrated film “Shoah” (1985) required aggressively pursuing Nazi murderers to demand explanations of their crimes. Fortunately, Lanzmann…
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Remembering Max Fuchs — A Cantor Of Heroism And Defiance
Mordechai (Max) Fuchs, who died on July 3 at age 96, was a survivor of a time when heard Jewish melodies were sweet, but those unheard were sweeter. An amateur cantor, he participated as a rifleman in the Normandy Invasion on D-Day, landing on Omaha Beach, where he was hit by shrapnel. Born in Rzeszów,…
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RBG Goes Classical For New Album Inspired By Her Life
With Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement threatening to throw the Supreme Court’s balance off kilter, all eyes are on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the famous dissenter and keeper of the progressive flame — but all ears? A new, nine-song cycle inspired by the liberal lion’s life is now available for those who can’t get enough RBG. While…
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Fast Forward Why some Satmar Hasidic leaders endorsed Zohran Mamdani as mayor, stunning many Jewish voters
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Culture Mamdani’s first statement on antisemitism as mayor-elect got some weird pushback
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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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Culture Mamdani quoted Eugene Debs in his victory speech — there’s a long Jewish history there
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