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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Music
How Steely Dan Saved Wes Anderson’s Career – And Maybe His Life
The year was 2006: a starry-eyed young rapper named Kanye West burst onto the scene with “Gold Digger,” the American public experienced the dawning realization the Iraq War had been a Bad Idea after all, and half-Jewish ‘70s art rockers Steely Dan launched an intervention of their own to revitalize the creativity of indie film…
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What Does Nicole Krauss Want To Say With Her New Novel?
This past spring, the author Nicole Krauss went to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to see an exhibit of prints by the 17th-century Dutch artist Hercules Segers. A trail of blood led down the hallway to the exhibit. When Krauss emerged from the gallery, that trail was still there, a record of some violence…
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How Jaffa’s Etzel House Stands At Odds With History
On the border of Tel Aviv and Jaffa are the ruins of an old house overlooking the beach and the Mediterranean Sea, with an anomalous black cube rising from its remnants. This is the Etzel House, also known as the Museum of Jaffa’s Liberators. It is dedicated to fighters of the museum’s eponymous organization, better…
The Latest
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When Burning Man Mixes With Shabbat
Usually, I shower for Shabbat. In fact, I usually shower every day. But last Friday night, having already survived nearly a week without stepping under running water, I wiped myself with a cucumber-scented towelette and biked through the desert to the land of Milk + Honey. Milk + Honey is one of dozens of theme…
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Stephen King’s ‘It’ Shows Hollywood Still Has A Jewish Problem
If you took your assumptions about U.S. demographic data from horror films, you’d think that Jews were a substantially smaller portion of the American population than serial killers, vampires, ghosts, demons and poltergeists. Horror films are fond of Catholic priests and Christian imagery, and they not infrequently include Jewish actors (like Jeff Goldblum in David…
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Why Peggy Noonan’s Use Of ‘Shonda’ Is A Shonda
Peggy Noonan, the Wall Street Journal columnist who won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for commentary — and who was, of course, President Reagan’s main speechwriter — sparked a social-media firestorm when she used the Yiddish word “shonda” to describe her reaction to the decision to remove Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee from the stained-glass…
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Anne Frank’s Diary Gets Authorized Comic Book Adaptation
PARIS (JTA) — In a bid to preserve interest in the Holocaust by future generations, the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation unveiled the first authorized comic book based on the teenager’s famous diary written in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. The 148-page adaptation, which is to be published September 18 in France and in some…
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‘Angels In America’ London Revival To Make Broadway Transfer
Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning two-part play “Angels In America” is coming back to Broadway. “Angels in America: Millenium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika” will transfer from London’s National Theatre to New York’s Neil Simon Theater early in spring 2018. As The New York Times reported, seven of the eight principal cast members…
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Why Are So Many of Today’s Recording Stars Named After Prophets?
Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe it’s a trend. Maybe it’s the times. Maybe it’s the birth pangs of the Messiah. In coming weeks, new recordings are expected from a half-dozen artists bearing the names of prophets and such — Tori Amos, Moses Sumney, Ariel Pink, Benjamin Clementine and a rock-rap super-group called Prophets of Rage…
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Meet The Man Who Has Revolutionized Israeli Cinema
Every year, Colorado’s prestigious Telluride Film Festival celebrates a hero of cinema who preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year that honor went to Katriel Schory, beloved president of the Israel Film Fund. The award was well-deserved. As president of the IFF since 1999, Schory has long been considered the secret force behind his…
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What Jewish Singles Events Are Actually Good For
Last spring, I found myself sitting in the Hilton in midtown Manhattan with three other women and a matchmaker, discussing the actor version of our perfect man. I said Jason Segel because he’s funny and lovable. I had come to this initial group interview to research a potential story, but also out of personal interest…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Culture She was my Hebrew school bully — and I finally learned what happened to her
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