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
-
How A Runaway Trapeze Artist-Turned-Surgeon Saved The Big Apple Circus
It’s a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting: A boy carries a stick on his shoulder with a bandana tied to one end. It contains his next meal; he’s running away from home to join the circus. That’s what Neil Kahanovitz did — with just a few minor differences. For one, there was no…
-
Leonard Cohen Found His Inner Picasso In His Final Work
‘So little to say / So urgent / to say it, is the whole of one poem by the late Leonard Cohen. The poem is called “My Career.” Like so much of Cohen’s work, the poem reifies a certain kind of humbleness — before the divine, the beautiful, the mystical. But the modesty may be…
-
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…
The Latest
-
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.”…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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,…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
- 2
Film & TV A new documentary challenges stereotypes about Orthodox Jewish women — and their wigs
- 3
Sports NBA coach Steve Kerr: ‘Israel sought revenge for Oct. 7 and now 72,000 Palestinians have been killed’
- 4
News Analysis: As Democrats unite behind Platner, Schumer’s future as leader faces tests
In Case You Missed It
-
News Her body has been unidentified for decades. Her Ashkenazi DNA may explain why
-
News Indiana synagogue that shaped Reform movement is sold — and will become a coffee shop, event space
-
Opinion Liberal Zionists are under attack. A new book proves their work has never been more important
-
Theater Mike Stoller and Iris Rainer Dart talk ‘Beaches’ and reviving their Yiddish musical