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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How Philippe Halsman Reinvented The Portrait
I’ve never truly believed the idea that portrait photography can tell us a clear truth about its subject. When we look at a portrait of Samuel Beckett, for instance, we might read a certain depth of life, and a certain hawk-like incisiveness, into the nooks and crannies of his face. But despite the expressiveness of…
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Jean Stein, Best-Selling Oral Historian, Dies In Apparent Suicide
Jean Stein, a best-selling author of oral histories, passed away on Sunday, April 30. As The Guardian reported, Stein apparently jumped to her death from the 15th floor of a Manhattan high-rise. She was 83 years old. Stein’s books included “Edie: An American Girl,” in which she brought together the voices of Edie Sedgwick’s friends,…
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In The AIDS Pandemic, William Hoffman Saw Parallels To The Holocaust
The American playwright and editor William Moses Hoffman, who died on April 29 at age 78, expressed his Judaism through dramatizations of the tragic AIDS pandemic. As Jonathan Friedman’s “Rainbow Jews: Jewish and Gay Identity in the Performing Arts” notes, “Among the first dramatists to write plays about AIDS were gay Jews.” At a time…
The Latest
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Shobha Nehru, A Quiet Witness To History, Dies At 108
Shobha Nehru, who died on April 25 at age 108, proved that humanistic ties to family roots never fade. Born Magdolna Friedmann in Budapest in 1908, she witnessed Hungarian anti-Semitism, which led her father to change the family name to the less Jewish-sounding Forbath. This new appellation led to a school nickname, Fori, which she…
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Film & TV Leo Tolstoy, ‘Hello, Dolly!’ and ‘Oslo’ Lead Tony Nominations
The 71st Tony Award nominations have been announced, led by “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” and “Hello, Dolly!” Here’s the full list: Best Play: “A Doll’s House, Part 2” “Indecent” “Oslo” “Sweat” Best Musical: “Come From Away” “Dear Evan Hansen” “Groundhog Day The Musical” “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812”…
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Despite Threats, Congress Proposes NEA Funding Increase, Not Elimination
If there is one thing those of us who oppose Trump can celebrate about the man and his presidency, it is his propensity to abandon proposals he had previously championed — like completely dismantling Obamacare or putting Hillary Clinton in prison, to name a few. His administration’s new budget blueprint, which excludes, for instance, funding…
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‘Oslo,’ ‘Indecent,’ And ‘If I Forget’ Nominated For Drama Desk Awards
Nominees for the 62nd Annual Drama Desk Awards, announced this past Thursday, include J.T. Rogers’s “Oslo,” Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” and Steven Levenson’s “If I Forget.” Those three plays were each nominated for Outstanding Play. Nominees for Outstanding Musical included “The Band’s Visit,” while “Falsettos” and the Barrow Street Theater’s site-specific staging of “Sweeney Todd: The…
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POEM ALERT: Why Is The New Yorker’s Editor Playing Al Franken?
Editor’s Note: A report that New Yorker David Remnick will be playing the role of Al Franken in a one-night-only Public Theater has moved our correspondent to verse, for better or worse. One is a hero of the liberal bastion The other’s prose stylings are always in fashion When the latter acts the former, on…
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What Did May Day Mean To Us In 1898?
Editor’s Note: The following article was published in the May 1, 1898 edition of the Forverts. I still recall the first of May in 1890 when fate sent me to Geneva where a May Day celebration was to take place for the first time since last year’s International Congress. Geneva’s workers decided to celebrate it…
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What Ever Became of the ‘Children of Jerusalem’?
Editor’s Note: ‘What Ever Became of the ‘Children of Jerusalem,’” a longform story by Naomi Zeveloff about the fates of seven Israeli and Palestinian children who starred in a 1990’s Canadian documentary series, is the 2016 Sigma Delta Chi award winner for Non-Deadline Reporting. Between 1991 and 1996, seven Israeli and Palestinian children starred in…
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Why Carl Reiner Was The Dreamiest Boss I Ever Had
At 26, after taking dictation and guff from assorted people in show business with egos ranging from inflated to absurdly inflated, I met Carl Reiner. On talk shows he’d seemed like an incredible mensch, so when I heard from a friend that his secretary was leaving, I desperately wanted her job. Reiner would be respectful…
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