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
-
From Mailer To Ginsberg, The Village Voice’s Greatest Contributions To Print Journalism
To the distress of many, iconic New York City weekly newspaper The Village Voice announced this week that it will cease producing a print issue. While a date for the final print issue has yet to be confirmed, the paper’s imminent absence from city newsstands sparked a keen mourning for what it once had been….
-
Did These Jewish Directors Make The Best Comedies Of All Time?
The movies most often counted among cinema’s greatest are disproportionally very depressing, but man does not live on melodrama and ennui alone. Because life itself is sad enough, the BBC polled 253 international film critics on their ten favorite comedies, the of which were released yesterday. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood’s Jewish-American filmmakers made quite the impression. The…
-
The Secret Jewish History Of Sacco And Vanzetti, Executed Radicals
Just after midnight on Aug 23, 1927, 90 years ago today, the anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were sent to the electric chair in Boston’s Charlestown State Prison. Sacco and Vanzetti, Italian immigrants who formed part of a radical anarchist milieu, had been convicted of the 1920 murders of a shoe-factory paymaster and the…
The Latest
-
Remembering Dorothy Parker, Quip Queen And NAACP Ally
On August 22, 1893, the celebrated author, humorist and cultural critic Dorothy Parker was born. She died at age 73 after a lifetime of writing witty, biting work. “Of course I talk to myself. I like a good speaker, and I appreciate an intelligent audience,” she famously wrote. Parker, who lived with her finger pressed…
-
How The Holocaust Shaped The Career Of The Late, Great Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory, the activist and comedian who died on August 19 at age 84, used tragedies of modern Jewish history to illuminate the civil rights struggles of African-Americans. As described in his memoir, out next month from Amistad Books, Gregory marched and was jailed alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers. From his…
-
Concerns About Censorship Soar As Russia Detains Director
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A prominent Russian theater director who has lamented what he says is the lack of freedom and growing social conservatism in his country was detained on Tuesday and accused of embezzling state funds. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it suspected Kirill Serebrennikov of embezzling at least 68 million rubles ($1.15 million) in state…
-
When Tony Kushner Destroyed A Confederate Monument On Broadway
While the country ruminates over the ethics of removing Confederate statues, the Broadway show “Caroline, or Change” already approached the issue – in 2004. When Tony Kushner wrote the musical with Jeanine Tesori – he provided book and lyrics, while she wrote the music – he intended it to be shocking. “It would have been…
-
Love In The Time Of Scholarship, Courtesy of Rachel Kadish
The Weight of Ink By Rachel Kadish Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 592 pages, $28 By now, it’s a familiar trope: stories set in the past and the present, at once parallel and intersecting, linked by writing that survives through the centuries. The many forerunners of Rachel Kadish’s new historical fiction, “The Weight of Ink,” include Tom…
-
Why The Solar Eclipse Must Be Bad For The Jews — Or So Says The Talmud
Across the United States, Jews are gathering in anticipation of the historic Great American Eclipse, particularly in cities known as ideal spots to experience the phenomenon. But at the downtown Brith Shalom Beth Israel synagogue Sunday evening, nestled in the historic southern city perfectly positioned for the Monday event, Dr. Jeremy Brown had bad news…
-
Music The Secret Jewish History of The National
The alternative rock band The National is backed by Jewish twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner
-
Jerry Lewis, The Comic Genius Who Never Had To Remind Us He Was A Jew
Jerry Lewis, the Jewish comedian and filmmaker who died on August 20 at age 91, will be remembered for more than “Cinderfella” (1959), “The Ladies Man” (1961), “The Nutty Professor” (1962), and a handful of other funny movies. A premier Jewish clown of American cinema, his innovative understanding of the medium ensured that his ethnic…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Inside the ancient Christian theology driving modern antisemitism
- 2
News Jews paused Indiana’s abortion ban — by turning a religious freedom law against the evangelical right
- 3
Opinion The moral degradation of Israel’s far right is even worse than you think
- 4
News Mamdani to attend Passover Seder as he navigates ties with Jewish groups amid rising antisemitism
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Oct. 7 changed Howard Jacobson. But his new novel is as defiant as ever.
-
Culture In 1989, Harold Pinter and Jerry Schatzberg made the perfect Holocaust movie for 2026
-
Fast Forward 3 more men arrested in London arson of ambulances owned by Jewish emergency service
-
Fast Forward Influencer Myron Gaines performs Nazi salute, denies Holocaust death toll at Ohio University event
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
