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
-
Film & TV
How I Fended Off My Own Personal Harvey Weinsteins
“Oy, this is bad for the Jews” is how my parents would have reacted to a scandal involving a Weinstein. They screened every newspaper story with that criterion. I can imagine them bemoaning that calling earthquakes Arlene, Gert, Irma, and Nate would also be “bad for the Jews.” The storm named Harvey, I’m guessing, like…
-
Why I’ll Be Teaching Both ‘Portnoy’s Complaint’ And This Harvey Weinstein Essay
Jewish humor, like all ethnic humor, is built upon stereotypes, and these stereotypes can often be found in anti-Semitic discourse. There is a fine line between ethnic comedy and outright bigotry, and its reception depends as much on context as on authorial intent. Ever since the early 1960s, when Lenny Bruce went public with his…
-
Anne Kauffman’s New Play Sent Her To Synagogue For The First Time In A Decade
A parent has a child with a chronic illness. Obviously, that parent’s life transforms; what, exactly, does it become? That question forms the heart of Amy Herzog’s new play “Mary Jane,” which runs through October 29 at New York Theatre Workshop. Directed by Anne Kauffman and staring Carrie Coon, the play’s title character, a single…
The Latest
-
72 Authors Are Supporting Jill Bialosky Against Plagiarism Accusations. They’re Still Wrong.
Jill Bialosky, the poet, memoirist, novelist and executive editor at W.W. Norton & Company recently accused of plagiarism in her new memoir “Poetry Will Save Your Life,” has a long list of powerful supporters. Former poets laureate Robert Pinsky and Louise Glück, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan, and some 70-odd other authors signed a Letter…
-
Annie Baker, Yuval Sharon Named MacArthur Fellows
Playwright Annie Baker and opera director Yuval Sharon are among the cultural figures to be awarded 2017 MacArthur Fellowships. The Fellowships, colloquially known as “genius grants,” come with a no-strings-attached award of $625,000. They are awarded annually to between 20 and 30 Americans across a range of disciplines. The MacArthur Foundation lauded Baker, who won…
-
Harvey Weinstein Is Not A Philip Roth Character, Because His Accusers Are Real
Updated, 3:30 p.m.: Mark Oppenheimer has issued an apology through Tablet for his article concerning Harvey Weinstein and Philip Roth, discussed below. Read his comments here. Harvey Weinstein can be said, definitively, to be several things: Formerly one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, a Jew, and unemployed. He can be very substantively alleged…
-
Lou Reed Was A Regular Jewish Kid — And Cultural Rebel For The Ages
Lou Reed: A Life By Anthony DeCurtis Little, Brown and Company, 528 pages, $32 At first glance, Lewis Allan Reed wasn’t all that different from the other middle-class Jewish lads he grew up with in 1950s Freeport, New York. He was a diligent student and an avid tennis player; he liked to make weekend forays…
-
Simon Schama, Daniel Mendelsohn Shortlisted For Baillie Gifford Prize
Simon Schama’s “Belonging: The Story of the Jews, 1492-1900” and Daniel Mendelsohn’s “An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic” have been shortlisted for this year’s Baillie Gifford Prize, one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious literary awards for nonfiction. The award, which comes with a prize of £30,000, or close to $40,000, was…
-
How ‘E.T.’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’ Reveal Steven Spielberg’s Story
Susan Lacy had a much better interview with Steven Spielberg than I did, so I’m understandably jealous. She spent about 30 hours with the director, and was able to elicit nuggets about his life and work that form the basis of Lacy’s appropriately titled documentary, “Spielberg,” which debuts on HBO Oct. 7. Like many, I’ve…
-
Critics And Writers Are Defending An Accused Plagiarist. Here’s Why They’re Wrong.
Poet, memoirist, novelist and editor Jill Bialosky, this week accused of plagiarism in her new memoir “Poetry Will Save Your Life,” has degrees from three universities. Each of them has clear standards as to what counts as plagiarism. “Reproducing another person’s work, whether published or unpublished” counts, according to Ohio University, from which Bialosky has…
-
How A Father-and-Son Story Became A Real-Life Odyssey
An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic By Daniel Mendelsohn Alfred A. Knopf, 304 pages $26.95 When Daniel Mendelsohn’s 81-year-old father asked if he might audit his son’s Bard College seminar on Homer’s “Odyssey,” the classicist feared that embarrassment might ensue. He wasn’t wrong. But his discomfort wasn’t the half of it. The…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
- 3
Fast Forward Hanukkah shooting leaves at least 15 dead at Australia’s most popular beach
- 4
Fast Forward Father and son suspects in Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack identified as Sajid and Naveed Akram by law enforcement
In Case You Missed It
-
News ‘We are not alright’: How Oct. 7 defined Eric Adams’ Jewish legacy
-
Fast Forward Judaism’s Conservative movement apologizes for decades of discouraging intermarriage, signals new approach
-
Fast Forward As Australian Jews call for action on antisemitism, prime minister unveils moves to curb hate speech
-
Opinion I’m a 25-year-old semi-Zionist. Here’s what that means this Hanukkah.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
