Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
-
Film & TV 8 young Jewish comedians on what ‘SNL 50’ means to them
'Saturday Night Live' may be entering middle age, but these rising Jewish comics are just getting started.
-
Why the Christmas Season Feels Like Trauma to Me
I never talk about this, but when I was a kid growing up in New Orleans, I was afraid of the colors red and green. It didn’t matter the season; if I saw the two together, I rushed to avert my gaze. Returning Magic Markers to their box, I took care not to let the…
-
6 New Poems For Trump’s America
In which our Jewish poet laureate opines about the dawning Trump era — in verse. #1 You too can own Ivanka’s dress! It’s pink, it’s svelte, it screams success Not sewn on 7th Avenue But made in China just for you. #2 Ribbon cuttings, they’ll be grand! This POTUS won’t disown his brand. “Trump” in gold…
The Latest
-
Remembering Dan Pagis 30 Years After His Death
The widely-admired poet Dan Pagis, famous for his haunting poems of the Holocaust, was the subject of a special memorial conference at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheva, Israel. A Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who died in 1986 at age fifty-six, Pagis was also an important scholar of medieval Hebrew literature. The conference, which took place entirely in…
-
Why ‘Farkakt’ Is Only One of Many Words That Describes 2016
Dictionary editors and cultural denizens are scrambling to come up with a single word to describe the craziness of 2016 — and some are turning to Yiddish for ideas. After flirting with “fascism” as a possibility, Merriam-Webster went with “surreal,” which it defines as “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream.” The word…
-
Superstition Vies With Faith at Yiddish New York
There they are, in Sanford Drob’s “Expulsion:” a man and woman, draped in animal skins, seized with grief – the woman gazing forward, determined but horrified, the man covering his face with his hand – and wearing armbands emblazoned with yellow Jewish stars, the word “Jude” at their centers. It’s a painting that, despite the…
-
The Maccabees Were On The Wrong Side of History — So Why Do We Still Celebrate Hanukkah?
Each year, when Hanukkah rolls around, I feel a certain sense of unease. Hmmm. A battle between Jewish zealots and Jews who wanted to partake of the richness of the Greek world around them. I have a feeling I’m on the wrong side of this, Hanukkah-wise. “You like wine?” my friend John, who is of…
-
Why a 90-Year-Old Jewish Prayer Still Seems Relevant Today
In contemplating the current political climate, some of us may turn inward, others may turn to drink and still others to prayer, beseeching the Almighty to “plant among the peoples of different nationalities and faiths who dwell here, love and brotherhood, peace and friendship.” These 18 words appear in “Prayer for Our Country,” which dates…
-
Why My Grandfather Voted For Trump (Or Did He?)
When my mother told me that my 93-year-old grandfather would be voting for Hillary Clinton, I was thrilled. Russian Jewish immigrants of a certain age tend to vote for Republican candidates for a variety of reasons, and it gave me great pleasure that he and I were united on this election. I always admired how…
-
Lena Dunham’s Absurd Comments Are Great Fodder For Comedy Twitter
Continuing a hot streak of idiotic statements unparalleled by anyone other than perhaps our President-elect (very curious as to who holds the record), Lena Dunham said yesterday on the Women of the Hour podcast, “Now I can say that I still haven’t had an abortion, but I wish I had.” Apparently Dunham thinks that the…
-
Israel Museum to Host Exhibition by Chinese Dissident Artist Ai Weiwei
Starting in June 2017, The Israel Museum will begin exhibiting the work of Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. The exhibition, titled “Ai Weiwei: One and the Multitude” will feature four works by the artist, including “Sunflower Seeds,” (2010) a work comprising millions of handcrafted and hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds that many have interpreted to be…
-
70 Years Later, We’re Still Debating Jean-Paul Sartre and Anti-Semitism
Scholars from around the world convened in Jerusalem this week for a conference marking the 70th anniversary of the publication of Jean-Paul Sartre’s influential “Anti-Semite and Jew.” Originally published in French as ”Réflexions Sur la Question Juive” and translated widely, the book-length essay was written just after Paris was liberated in 1944. The English translation…
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
- 2
Opinion With killing of Hezbollah’s chief, Israel occupies the inarguable moral high ground
- 3
Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
- 4
Culture You can buy Sukkot gift boxes that say ‘tuchus’ on Amazon
In Case You Missed It
-
Oct. 7: One Year Later Helpless and horrified: An oral history of 5 Jews in America on Oct. 7, 2023
-
Opinion I study the relationship between Zionism and Judaism. Oct. 7 may have changed it forever
-
Fast Forward Shofars blown along Ukrainian frontlines as part of Rosh Hashanah initiative for soldiers
-
Fast Forward 8 Israeli troops killed in Lebanon in first Israeli casualties of ground invasion
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism