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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Chicago’s Jewish History, In One Synagogue
Chi-town? More like Chai-town. On August 23, Chicago’s WBEZ 91.5 devoted an episode of their program “Curious City” to the history of Jews in the Windy City. The program began with a question from listener Elias Saltz: “Where were the largest Jewish neighborhoods in Chicago, and what were they like and where did they go?”…
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Art How Hard Is It To Trace Nazi-Looted Art? Heirs’ Showdown With German Foundation Gives Insight.
When the Viennese cabaret artist and art collector Fritz Grünbaum was deported to the Dachau concentration camp in 1938 — he would die there in 1941 — his art collection numbered more than 400 works, many by the Austrian Expressionist Egon Schiele. Much of his collection was confiscated by the Nazis after his deportation, after…
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The Suicide Epidemic Is A Symptom Of Our Sick Body Politic
I would love to believe in petitionary prayer. Especially when life and death are at stake, a God who hears my supplications would be deeply reassuring. Despite my skepticism, I never pass up a chance in shul to say a Mi Shebeirach — the Jewish prayer for healing — and to name aloud the people…
The Latest
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Freud Rarely Spoke About His Life — But In A Rare Letter, He Showed Jewish Pride
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, didn’t often dish about his personal life. Even when he used his own family as subjects for his anecdotes — such as his grandson Ernst, who played a famous game of “fort-da” in Freud’s “Beyond The Pleasure Principle” (1920) — he was careful to refer to them simply as…
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September 4: Manhattan; Judge Ruchie Freier To Join Screening Of ‘93Queen’
Not only is Judge Rachel “Ruchie” Freier the only Hasidic woman judge in the world, but also she’s the founder of the first all-female Orthodox EMT group. Freier will be in conversation with Jane Eisner, the editor-in-chief of the Forward, after a screening of “93Queen” on September 4, at the Meyerson JCC in Manhattan. “93Queen”…
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Neil Simon, A Yiddish-Influenced Wisecracker
In his heyday, the playwright Neil Simon, who died on August 26 at age 91, produced a series of long-running plays, some of them winners of significant awards, that tickled audiences as the height of the wisecrack genre. “Brighton Beach Memoirs” (1983), “Biloxi Blues” (1985), “Broadway Bound” (1986), and “Lost in Yonkers” (1991) capped a…
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Before He Was A Genius, Stanley Kubrick Was A Wunderkind
As I studied the contents of “Through a Different Lens,” the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibition of Stanley Kubrick’s early photography, I played a game with myself. I tried to forget that the photographs had been taken by the director who made “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Eyes Wide Shut.” Instead, I…
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Is It OK To Dress Like A Nazi? New Zealand Group Says It Depends.
While the Wehrmacht never set foot in New Zealand during World War II, a few days ago in an Auckland park they were out in force. Newshub reports that a group of historical re-enactors dressed like Nazi soldiers, some of whom carried prop guns and wore helmets and uniforms bearing Reichsadler eagle crests and swastikas,…
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Meet Al Lieberman, Who Caught The ‘68 Democratic National Convention On Camera
August 26, 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, an event that swept the Windy City into discord for four tumultuous days. Protestors camped out at Lincoln and Grant Park were intimidated by police and National Guardsmen, who met their calls for an end of the war in Vietnam…
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Celebrating Leonard Bernstein At 100
With August 25 marking his centenary, Massachusetts-born Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) remains the 20th century’s most famous Jewish musician. His Symphony No. 1 Jeremiah and Symphony No. 3 (Kaddish), among other works, are lasting contributions to the orchestral repertoire, as memoirs by musical associates, including Jack Gottlieb and John Mauceri attest. Bernstein’s Yiddishkeit was essential to…
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In The Face Of Circus Politics, We Need Better Stories
I recently returned from a Trump fast. It was actually a news fast, but since the news these days is pretty much all Trump all the time, a Trump detox is what it turned out to be. It was in the high desert, in another country, at a place with mercifully lousy cell service, blissfully…
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