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
How Jerry Lewis Became A Great Filmmaker And Embarassed Everyone In the Process
There can be an almost archeological element to discussing the work and career of Jerry Lewis. The legendary Jewish-American filmmaker, who died on August 20, lived and worked through a period of immense transformation in American culture – one that he helped to create – such that it can be difficult for contemporary audiences to…
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When Philip Roth Gave Mary Karr A Book — And Changed Her Life
What does a memoirist known for her evocations of the calamities of youth in Texas have to learn from a French experimental novelist and filmmaker? For Mary Karr, a first encounter with the work of Marguerite Duras proved the answer: Quite a lot. As told to New York Magazine’s Erica Schwiegershausen for the series “Reading…
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Steve Bannon’s Favorite New Book Is By A Historian Of The Jews
Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former chief advisor, now returned to his previous post as executive chairman of Breitbart News, has long drawn accusations of anti-Semitism, as well as impassioned defenses against the charge. Now, a new complication has emerged in the debate. Bannon, upon being named to the top spot of the Politico 50 —…
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Music In Memory Of Walter Becker, A Love Song For Steely Dan
By Dan Epstein Swimming lessons at the “Y” were the worst. For reasons I can no longer recall — but which probably had at least something to do with my stubborn resistance to taking any sort of extra-curricular instruction in anything that I wasn’t already deeply interested in — I got a late start on…
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Why We Still Need Saul Bellow (And Bernard Malamud And Philip Roth)
This Month Anne Reads: “Seize the Day, by Saul Bellow” The three of them, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Phillip Roth were our first team offering to America. They won prizes. They were the talk of the town and all the towns across the English-speaking world. Although their roots were in poorer places, their ambitions…
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Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser’s Excellent Israeli Adventure
Our Israeli Diary, 1978: Of That Time, Of That Place By Antonia Fraser Oneworld Publications, 176 pages, $16.99 Even on vacation, writers may not be able to set aside their vocation. And so we have this spikily charming diary by the British biographer and memoirist Antonia Fraser, a chronicle of a 15-day trip to Israel…
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Film & TV Remembering Shelley Berman — A Kafkaesque Comic Of Existential Loneliness
Shelley Berman, who died on September 1 at age 92, was the Gregor Samsa of American comedy. Like the protagonist of Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” Berman was alert to the insectification of modern life, whatever removes humanity and sparks rage. Focusing on petty occasions for anger made him the spiritual forefather of comedians, especially Larry David,…
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Manhattan’s Only Winemaker Is This 89-Year-Old Iraqi Jew
NEW YORK (JTA) — Latif Jiji looks over this year’s crop at Chateau Latif with an expression of satisfaction. If you’ve never heard of Chateau Latif, you’re not alone. In fact, your favorite sommelier probably hasn’t heard of it, either. It’s not from the south of France, nor is it from Napa Valley. Rather, it’s…
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Can This 28-Year-Old Rabbi Save A Landmark Brooklyn Synagogue?
When Rabbi Sam Reinstein arrived at the country’s first Jewish Comic Con, he didn’t seem to grasp the superhero symbolism emblazoned on his chest. A 28-year-old who prefers comedy to comics, he had decided to wear a humor T-shirt, which featured the Superman Logo wearing a black hat and peyes. He wandered through Congregation Kol…
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How A Tel Aviv Café Is Helping The Needy With Free Challah
A Tel Aviv coffee shop is offering free challahs for those who need them in a novel way — by leaving challahs on café tables for an hour each Friday afternoon. Coffee Station at 152 Ibn Gabirol Street, the street Israelis pronounce as Even Gvirol, will have challahs on tables from 3:30-4:30 p.m each Friday,…
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The Mystery Behind The Lost Books Of A Cherished Lublin Yeshiva
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. S. Y. Stupnitsky, a forgotten twentieth-century Jewish journalist, made a prescient observation about the great historic Jewish structures in Europe: “Jews built them, and today non-Jews possess them.” Stupnitsky’s words certainly ring true about Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, the educational brainchild of Meir Shapiro, a Polish rabbi who…
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