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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Art
How Jews Invented The American Dream
“The American Dream” refers to the notion that embedded in the founding documents of our nation is a framework that guarantees equality of opportunity for socio-economic success to all. Never mind that the reality of American history, law and socio-economic practice has been one that has at best been selective in who is allowed onto…
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Books In The Age Of Trump, Hannah Arendt’s 66-Year-Old Philosophy Tome Is Selling Bigly
In 1951, the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt published “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” her 600-page twin study of Nazism and Stalinism. The book received rave reviews; Norman Podhoretz, the Jewish New York intellectual, compared it to an epic poem. Then, 66 years later, in December of last year, Arendt’s book began selling at 16 times its…
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The Bible’s Coming To Public School — At Least In Kentucky
A new law in Kentucky makes it legal to teach a Bible elective course in public schools as part of the social studies curriculum. The bill easily passed the State House and Senate, and was signed by Governor Matt Bevin. The video of Bevin signing the bill is currently the most popular video on WDRB,…
The Latest
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In “Shooting Holy Land” Josef Koudelka And Gilad Baram Explore The Aesthetics Of The Israeli Wall
Before the late screening of “Shooting Holy Land” (initially released in 2015) at Anthology Film Archive in the East Village – added by popular demand after a sold out first showing – Gilad Baram, the Israeli director of the film, and septuagenarian Magnum photographer Josef Koudelka, the film’s subject, gave a brief introduction. Koudelka was spritely…
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This Childishly Idiotic Fake Cover Isn’t Donald Trump’s First ‘Time’ Embarrassment
The Washington Post recently reported that a framed Time magazine cover featuring Donald Trump is hanging in at least five of the president’s golf courses. This would not be in any way newsworthy except for the fact that the cover is a poorly done fake. Yes, it seems as if Trump or somebody in the…
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Meet The Houston Mom, Activist And Literary Critic Running For Congress
In the weeks following the 2016 presidential election, Laura Moser found a new mission. Moser, 39, was living in Washington D.C., working as a freelance writer – she has, on occasion, written for the Forward – and taking care of her two young children. Newly engaged in politics after Donald Trump’s win, she saw a…
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How Isaac Babel Became The Bard Of Jewish Loss And Fate
This Month Anne Reads: “Gedali,” by Isaac Babel Born in 1894, he fell into the hellish century that lay just ahead. He wrote in Russian. He was a Communist. He was a university educated Jew. He was executed by firing squad January 27, 1940, in the Butyrka Prison in Moscow. He was having an affair…
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Zach Woods Of ‘Silicon Valley’ Is The Best Jewish Comedian You’re Not Watching
If you’ve ever seen HBO’s amazingly awkward “Silicon Valley,” you know Zach Woods. His portrayal of Jared Dunn, the loyal, wilting, strangely motherly, secretly German-speaking C.F.O of Pied Piper, the fictional startup which the series follows, has consistently been one of the series’ sleeper gems. Luckily for us, Woods is Jewish, so those of us…
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Film & TV Was ‘Full Metal Jacket’ Stanley Kubrick’s Stealth Holocaust Movie?
As we mark the 30th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War movie “Full Metal Jacket,” which was released June 17, 1987, it’s hard to think of a less Jewish topic than the training of a bunch of misfit Marines for a subsequent tour of duty in Vietnam. Indeed, in his famous taxonomy of what was…
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Why Monument Valley II Is The Most Beautiful Mobile Game Of 2017
Earlier in the month, British game design firm Ustwo Games, released the follow up to 2014’s wildly successful phone and tablet game Monument Valley. For the uninitiated, Monument Valley is a sort of puzzle game – you move your character around an isometric MC Escher like structure, manipulating levers and rotating towers, in order to reach…
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The ‘Harry Potter’ Series Is 20 — But Is It Jewish?
Twenty years ago, the very first published pages of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series hit bookstores in the United Kingdom. The ensuing decades have seen the books give rise to a worldwide fandom, a successful film series, a thriving fanfiction community, and several theme parks — as well as the eternal question: Is Harry Potter…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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