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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When Burning Man Mixes With Shabbat
Usually, I shower for Shabbat. In fact, I usually shower every day. But last Friday night, having already survived nearly a week without stepping under running water, I wiped myself with a cucumber-scented towelette and biked through the desert to the land of Milk + Honey. Milk + Honey is one of dozens of theme…
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Stephen King’s ‘It’ Shows Hollywood Still Has A Jewish Problem
If you took your assumptions about U.S. demographic data from horror films, you’d think that Jews were a substantially smaller portion of the American population than serial killers, vampires, ghosts, demons and poltergeists. Horror films are fond of Catholic priests and Christian imagery, and they not infrequently include Jewish actors (like Jeff Goldblum in David…
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Why Peggy Noonan’s Use Of ‘Shonda’ Is A Shonda
Peggy Noonan, the Wall Street Journal columnist who won a 2017 Pulitzer Prize for commentary — and who was, of course, President Reagan’s main speechwriter — sparked a social-media firestorm when she used the Yiddish word “shonda” to describe her reaction to the decision to remove Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee from the stained-glass…
The Latest
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Anne Frank’s Diary Gets Authorized Comic Book Adaptation
PARIS (JTA) — In a bid to preserve interest in the Holocaust by future generations, the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation unveiled the first authorized comic book based on the teenager’s famous diary written in hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam. The 148-page adaptation, which is to be published September 18 in France and in some…
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‘Angels In America’ London Revival To Make Broadway Transfer
Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning two-part play “Angels In America” is coming back to Broadway. “Angels in America: Millenium Approaches” and “Angels in America: Perestroika” will transfer from London’s National Theatre to New York’s Neil Simon Theater early in spring 2018. As The New York Times reported, seven of the eight principal cast members…
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Why Are So Many of Today’s Recording Stars Named After Prophets?
Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe it’s a trend. Maybe it’s the times. Maybe it’s the birth pangs of the Messiah. In coming weeks, new recordings are expected from a half-dozen artists bearing the names of prophets and such — Tori Amos, Moses Sumney, Ariel Pink, Benjamin Clementine and a rock-rap super-group called Prophets of Rage…
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Meet The Man Who Has Revolutionized Israeli Cinema
Every year, Colorado’s prestigious Telluride Film Festival celebrates a hero of cinema who preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year that honor went to Katriel Schory, beloved president of the Israel Film Fund. The award was well-deserved. As president of the IFF since 1999, Schory has long been considered the secret force behind his…
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What Jewish Singles Events Are Actually Good For
Last spring, I found myself sitting in the Hilton in midtown Manhattan with three other women and a matchmaker, discussing the actor version of our perfect man. I said Jason Segel because he’s funny and lovable. I had come to this initial group interview to research a potential story, but also out of personal interest…
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How Poets And Novelists Are Mourning John Ashbery
John Ashbery was among the very greatest poets of the postwar era, one of the most imaginative and accurate chroniclers of what he called “the experience of experience.” But he might have blanched to hear himself spoken of in such portentous, non-poetic terms. Following Ashbery’s passing on September 3, his friends and acolytes offered reminiscences…
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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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