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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Every Haggadah You Need For Passover This Year (And Some You Might Not)
Passover reflects America. Over the last two decades, two trends have defined American religious life: disaffiliation and spiritual searching. More Americans than ever are leaving the religious denominations of their childhood: Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish communities alike. Each tradition, in turn, is becoming smaller, more traditional, and more conservative (except Catholics, due to the influx…
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Every Book You Need To Read This Spring, From Rachel Kushner To Sloane Crosley
It is 2018, and anything is possible: Driverless cars! Nuclear war! Equal pay between movie stars of opposite genders! (Okay, maybe not that.) The world is uncertain, but books can be relied on for pleasure, escapism and, worst of all, information. Here are some of the best fiction and nonfiction releases we’re expecting in upcoming…
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Give me 829 words to make you fall in love with one of the greatest artists who ever lived
Remembering Stephen Sondheim on the occasion of his birthday
The Latest
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Art What Nan Goldin’s Opioid Protests Mean For The Met — And Culture Institutions Everywhere
On a recent Saturday, the photographer Nan Goldin, best known for her mid-1980s photo series “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency,” led a protest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Standing in front of the Egyptian Temple of Dendur, the low, rectangular reflective moat that surrounds the Temple swarmed with orange pill bottles that had been…
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Groucho Marx, Steve Reich Recordings Entered Into National Registry
When a climate apocalypse one day destroys human civilization, at least alien archaeologists will be able to become acquainted with Groucho Marx. “An Evening With Groucho” (1972), a recording of the legendary comedian’s final one-man show, is one of the 25 recordings newly added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. In a testament…
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Why Jonathan Weisman Is Fending Off Criticism From Anti-Semites And Jews
After he fell victim to an onslaught of vile anti-Semitic taunts on Twitter, and discovered that users were enclosing his name in parentheses — (((Jonathan Weisman))) — to connote his being Jewish, Jonathan Weisman became a reluctant expert on the rise of the so-called “Alt-Right.” In his new book, “(((Semitism))),” Weisman delves into the ancient…
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Film & TV The Secret Jewish History Of Cynthia Nixon
If longshot candidate for New York State governor Cynthia Nixon pulls off a surprise win in November, she won’t join the rarefied club of Jewish governors of New York like Herbert Lehman and Eliot Spitzer. The one-time child actress and star of “Sex and the City” would, however, bring to her office a deep and…
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Theater Q&A With ‘The Band’s Visit’ Author Itamar Moses
Based on one of Israel’s most celebrated movies — the multiple Ophir-winning “Bikur HaTizmoret” (“The Band’s Visit,” 2007) by Eran Kolirin — “The Band’s Visit” is this year’s surprise Broadway hit. The musical features Tony Shalhoub (“Monk” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) playing — and singing! — alongside Katrina Lenk (who recently starred in “Indecent”)….
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No, The Beatles Weren’t Jewish — But Their Hairdresser Certainly Was
It was early June 1967, and Leslie Cavendish faced a rare dilemma: War had broken out in the Middle East, and the very survival of Israel seemed at stake. For Cavendish and his friends in London, the possibility that Israel might be destroyed touched something deep inside their Jewish hearts, and they all felt the…
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Film & TV Mussolini’s Peculiar History With Fox News — And The Jews
It may not have come as a total surprise to those who have watched him closely that former White House staffer Stephen K. Bannon is a huge fan of Benito Mussolini. According to an interview with Bannon in the Spectator, he “adores” the fascist dictator, who may well have been the originator of the term…
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The Secret Jewish History of St. Patrick’s Day
If you are Jewish and you feel drawn somehow to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, there are more than a dozen good reasons why. St. Patrick’s Day and Purim typically appear on the calendar within a few weeks of each other. In the same way that on Purim one is encouraged to drink to the point…
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