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
-
Film & TV
The Jewish Aryan Contradictions Of Scarlett Johansson
Nobody is saying that “Rough Night” is a great film, but what charm it has comes from Scarlett Johansson playing against type. Johansson’s roles tend to cast her as the perfect woman — her last appearance earlier this year as an icy superhuman cyborg in “Ghost in the Shell” was typical. In “Rough Night,” she…
-
Meet The Tenement Museum’s New President, Kevin Jennings
The Tenement Museum, a Lower East Side institution devoted to telling the story of American immigrants, has a new president. Come July, Kevin Jennings, recently of the social and environmental justice-oriented Arcus Foundation, will succeed Dr. Morris J. Vogel, who has been the Museum’s president since 2008. Vogel announced his upcoming retirement in January. Jennings,…
-
It’s Book Week In Israel — So What Happened To All The Women?
This is Shavua HaSefer, or the Week of the Book in Israel, which means book displays in public squares, literary event marathons, and deep discounts that many serious readers wait for. It’s the best time to find unusual volumes on display, and an ideal moment to check out new books and celebrate the liveliness of…
The Latest
-
The Forgotten Holocaust Poetry Of Hermann Adler
Recently, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), whose wonderful archive we’ve previously covered here, released the debut issue of their journal of art and design “Full Bleed.” Though “journal of art and design” is MICA’s own categorization, “Full Bleed” includes criticism, poetry, memoir, and more. The first issue, focused on the theme of migration,…
-
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Theater Critic, Under Fire For ‘Egregious’ Review
Hedy Weiss, the Chicago Sun-Times’s longtime theater critic, is under fire from the Chicago theater community for her review of the Steppenwolf Theatre’s production of Antoinette Nwandu’s “Pass Over.” The play, which follows two young black ben through a “Waiting for Godot”-like scenario, has garnered generally positive reviews; The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones deemed it…
-
Jessica Cohen, David Grossman’s Translator, To Donate Man Booker Winnings To Israeli Human Rights Group
Jessica Cohen, Israeli novelist David Grossman’s longtime translator, will donate half of her share of the pair’s Man Booker International Prize winnings to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. B’Tselem, which operates in the West Bank, states its primary mission as being “to change Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories and ensure that its government,…
-
So, How Do You Observe Shabbat In Reykjavik?
Shabbat lasts three days in Reykjavik, Iceland, as I discovered when I found myself there for a writing conference. Shabbat began at 11:16 p.m. on Friday night, according to Chabad’s ever-helpful online calendar that lists candle-lighting times around the world, and finally ended at 1:27 on Sunday morning. Travelers to Iceland in summer often remark…
-
EXCLUSIVE: Meet David Grossman, Israel’s Conscience And Man Booker Prize Winner
‘Almost in every book I write there is an individual facing an outer arbitrariness,” David Grossman told me one cold morning shortly before the weather turned to rain. His point was reinforced by the chaos behind him: It was a Monday, and outside, on New York City’s Lexington Avenue, a series of harried workers rushed…
-
David Grossman Wins Man Booker International Prize
Israeli novelist David Grossman and his translator, Jessica Cohen, have won the 2017 Man Booker International Prize for “A Horse Walks Into a Bar.” Delighted to announce our #MBI2017 winner is David Grossman’s A Horse Walks Into a Bar translated by Jessica Cohen – https://t.co/AZQPkQiKfp pic.twitter.com/z441PP3DiC — Man Booker Prize (@ManBookerPrize) June 14, 2017 Both…
-
Teju Cole’s New Book Defies Categorization
I’ve started this review three or four times by now, and each time I’ve deemed my writing inadequate and started over again. The book, quite frankly, needs to be seen for itself. Like all great works, it defies paraphrase – it cannot be brought under the dominion of a single interpretation. But it is the reviewer’s…
-
‘Indecent’ To Close On Broadway
Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” will close on Broadway on June 25. The play was Vogel’s Broadway debut. Director Rebecca Taichman, who co-created the show with Vogel, won this year’s Tony Award for best direction of a play. “Indecent” isn’t the only play to announce an early closing following the Tony Awards. Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat,” also her…
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
- 3
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 4
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The Gaza hostage crisis could forever change how American Jews relate to Israel — but it’s not too late to fix that
-
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.
-
Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
-
Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism