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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Art
Houdini’s Astounding Jewish History Revealed!
A thrilling new exhibition about Harry Houdini pulls off an elaborate trick of its own. “Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini,” at the Jewish Museum of Maryland through January 2019, manages to make the mythical magician’s story feel fresh — an achievement that’s almost as hard as making an elephant disappear, which Houdini…
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A Life Of Hannah Arendt In All Its Graphic Detail
The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt By Ken Krimstein Bloomsbury, 232 pages, $28 In “The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt, a Tyranny of Truth,” a graphic biography, Ken Krimstein, a New Yorker cartoonist who teaches at DePaul University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, depicts Arendt in a way no other book…
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Memo To A Sexist Editor: You Are Not A Martyr
In Ian Buruma’s eyes, there is something cruelly ironic about the circumstances of his departure from the New York Review of Books. As the broadsheet’s editor-in-chief, he had published Jian Ghomeshi’s essay “Reflections from a Hashtag,” in which a man accused by over 20 women of sexual assault meditated on how social media scorn had…
The Latest
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Philip Roth Gets The Memorial He Wanted At The New York Public Library
On September 25, 2018, Philip Roth, a titan of American letters received a memorial service at the New York Public Library at Bryant Park. The Associated Press reports that hundreds gathered to celebrate the memory of the late author, who passed away in May at the age of 85. Among the attendees were writers Salman…
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Theater See The Original Costume Sketches For ‘Fiddler On The Roof’
The iconic look of “Fiddler on the Roof,” from its Broadway debut to the 1976 film, is due in no small part to the show’s original costume designer, Patricia Zipprodt. 30 photos of Zipprodt’s design sketches for the musical’s 1964 premiere, part of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ collection and recently…
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Liana Finck On Peter Pan, Nabokov And The Rats Of Self-Doubt
In many ways, the comic artist Liana Finck’s work is fearless. Finck’s style is bold in its simplicity and storytelling, and now, in her latest book, “Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir” (Random House) brave in its intimacy. The book follows Leola (a fictionalized version of the artist) as she tries to reckon with the…
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The National Book Foundation Names Moriel Rothman-Zecher, Hannah Lillith Assadi In 5 Under 35 Award
The National Book Foundation has announced the 2018 winners of its 5 Under 35 award for early career fiction writers based in the United States. The winners, who are selected by past recipients, can only have one published book to their name. One of this year’s winners, Moriel Rothman-Zecher, has been making headlines for nonliterary…
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Music Michael Chabon’s ‘Kavalier & Clay’ May Become An Opera At The Met
Move over, “Ring Cycle,” there’s a new opera epic in the works. Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” (2000) may be making its way to the Metropolitan Opera. The New York Times reports that the Met is busy commissioning original operas with an eye toward including the work of…
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Steve Bannon Gets The Best Of Errol Morris
Of all the indicators of exactly how fast public life moves in the twenty-first century, few are more perplexing or disturbing than the fact that it’s now possible for liberals to experience nostalgia for Steve Bannon. No matter how much one has tried to keep up with this acceleration, the ever-increasing pace at which the…
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Film & TV Why Elaine May Is A National Treasure
When “The Waverly Gallery” makes its official Broadway debut on October 25, Elaine May will appear as Gladys, the Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandmother in Kenneth Lonergan’s 1999 comic drama that brings multiple meanings to the term “memory play.” Fans of the comedian/actress/writer/director, who has been American comedy’s insurgent genius as well as its Jewish mother, have greeted…
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Yuval Noah Harari Thinks We Should Challenge Liberal Myths
When I interviewed Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari for the Forward last month, I asked him about his newest book “21 Lessons For The 21st Century” and its critique of liberalism, something that caused him considerable anxiety on the road to publication. He answered me by defending liberal ideas, but voiced concern over their durability….
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