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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Film & TV
James Franco’s ‘Disaster Artist’ Follow-Up To Be Shel Silverstein Biopic
James Franco has won rave reviews for his work on “The Disaster Artist,” a Tommy Wiseau biopic he directed and in which he stars as the legendarily weird creator of “The Room.” The project has, apparently, given him the biopic bug; today, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that Franco’s next project will be a film about…
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Should We Remove Confederate Monuments — Even If They’re Artistically Valuable?
In 1912 and 1914, The Washington Post described the Confederate monument at Arlington National Cemetery as “a magnificent work of art” and “one of the most beautiful [monuments] in this section of the country.” Commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and celebrated with a cornerstone-laying ceremony and a formal dedication two years…
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Movie News: James Franco’s Tommy Wiseau Tribute, Early Awards Season
Still nursing your Thanksgiving food coma? Can’t handle any degree of activity more strenuous than that of sitting in a movie theater? Great: This week’s new movies come out tomorrow, so today, we have this week’s movie news. 1) James Franco’s Tommy Wiseau biopic is a hit Tommy Wiseau famously created and starred in “The…
The Latest
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New York Times 10 Best Books Of 2017 Include Works By Naomi Alderman, Ron Chernow
Naomi Alderman’s novel “The Power” and Ron Chernow’s biography of Ulysses S. Grant, “Grant,” are among The New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2017. Alderman’s “The Power” won this year’s Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. The Times books editors wrote that the novel was “a riveting story, told in fittingly electric language, that explores…
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Playwright Israel Horovitz Accused Of Sexual Harassment, Assault By Nine Women
Playwright Israel Horovitz, the founding artistic director of Gloucester Stage Company, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by nine women, The New York Times’s Jessica Bennett today reported. Horovitz’s accusers are all women who worked with him when they were adolescents or in their early 20s. They include the playwright Jocelyn Meinhardt, who…
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Amy Schumer Shines As ‘Shiksa Goddess’ In Steve Martin’s Dim-Watted Play
Amy Schumer, in her Broadway debut, proves herself a competent stage actress, an unsurprisingly gifted physical comedian, and, remarkably, a formidable shiska goddess. It’s just a shame the vehicle bringing her here, Steve Martin’s “Meteor Shower,” is quite so stubbornly earthbound. Martin’s latest— the multitalented onetime “Saturday Night Live” star previously wrote the absurdist comedy…
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Art Director of Holocaust Museum Fears Its Lessons Are Timeless
Sara Bloomfield joined the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in its early stages, years before the project turned into one of the nation’s most visited landmarks on the National Mall in Washington. Now, after serving as director of the museum for 18 years, Bloomfield, 67, is tasked with leading the institution during a time when…
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Why We’re Living Inside The Worst Movie Ever Made
Maybe the most salient characteristic of our culture is how much of it is bad. Technological changes have allowed an unprecedented number of hacks to produce great quantities of what the parlance of the day terms “content.” At the same time, the presumed existence of a consumer with a bottomless appetite for diversion has encouraged…
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The Word ‘Hanukkah’ Means A Lot More Than You Think It Does
What does the word “Hanukkah” mean? For children, it often means the holiday of presents. For Tel Aviv doughnut obsessives, it means congregating on all eight days at bakeries with the most elaborate sufganiyot. For many around the world, it’s “the Festival of Lights,” when seeing menorahs in the windows of neighbors’ homes illuminates the…
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Italy Tells The Story Of Its Jewish People In New Museum
“The story of Jews in Italy is really an Italian story,” Dario Disegni said one recent autumn morning at Columbia University’s Italian Academy for Advanced Studies. Disegni, president of the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, was appearing at Columbia to discuss the museum, which is also known as MEIS, opens in Ferrara…
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Why Are So Many Jewish Podcasts So Bad — And What Can We Do About It?
Podcasting, you may have heard, is booming. Listenership is up, so is awareness of the medium, and high-quality podcasts seem to be popping up everywhere. As with television, the medium itself has recently become more respectable, including among the Hollywood A-listers; Oscar Isaac stars in “Homecoming,” while an episode of “Reply All” is being adapted…
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Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
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Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
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Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
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Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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Fast Forward In Reykjavik, Hanukkah offers a chance for Iceland’s tiny, isolated Jewish community to come together
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Opinion When my children decorate for Hanukkah, I don’t just see pride. I see pluralism in action.
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Fast Forward ‘The most Australian name’: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation’s grief
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