Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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Film & TV 8 young Jewish comedians on what ‘SNL 50’ means to them
'Saturday Night Live' may be entering middle age, but these rising Jewish comics are just getting started.
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How a Jewish Photographer Named Herman Leonard Redefined Jazz
Few people did more to establish jazz’s visual aesthetic than the American Jewish photographer Herman Leonard, who passed away in 2010. Leonard began photographing jazz musicians in the 1940s, often offering club owners and musicians free prints in exchange for access to rehearsal studios. His photographs appeared sporadically in issues of DownBeat and Metronome magazines,…
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“First Jewish Americans” Were Anxious About Intermarriage, Assimilation — Just Like Us
In 1742 Phila Levy-Franks, the daughter of a well-off family in New York’s growing Jewish community, secretly married the Huguenot Oliver de Lancey. Her mother, Abigail, who had immigrated to the United States from England in 1695, went into mourning and never spoke to her again. It might be harder, now, to find Jewish parents…
The Latest
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The World’s Oldest Jewish Actor Dies at 101
The Russian Jewish actor Vladimir Zeldin, who died at age 101 on October 31, proved that if a performing career is long enough, it can stretch from one dictatorship to another. A mainstay of Moscow’s Red Army Theatre, now known as the Russian Army Theatre, Zeldin’s powerful presence and resonant voice filled this vast, crushingly…
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These Were 10 of the Greatest Artists on Jewish-Owned Chess Records Label
Chess Records, established in Chicago in 1950, was one of American music’s major institutions, helping to establish the hot, electric Chicago Blues sound and pioneer a new type of music known as Rock n’ Roll. Phil and Leonard Chess, brothers and co-founders of the label, were immigrants from a Jewish community in Częstochowa, Poland. After…
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Meet Harry Swimmer — CNN’s Jewish Nominee For Hero of the Year
When CNN announced the ten finalists for their tenth annual “CNN Heroes” special, 86-year-old Harry Swimmer was eating his weekend lox and bagels with family and friends, keeping his best poker face between bites. Swimmer knew he was among the finalists, but had signed a confidentiality agreement, and had even kept the news from his…
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How Blue Pajamas and a Magic Pizza Made a Miracle Happen for the Chicago Cubs
I awoke yesterday morning to find my brain shrouded by fog, echoes of bad decisions emanating from my stomach, and my mouth tasting like the circus had recently left town via my tongue. I staggered to the fridge for some water, and found a small, neatly saran-wrapped square of cheese pizza sitting upon the top…
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Meet 7 Orthodox Comics Who Are Making Comedy Kosher Again
Comedy isn’t kosher. Jewish law forbids Jews from voicing mockery, criticism and just plain negativity —precisely those elements that are part of almost all comic routines. But that’s just for starters. Ultra-Orthodox comics face a range of rules: no foul language, double entendres, or risqué allusions. If they’re performing for seriously Orthodox audiences, all comments…
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The Secret Jewish History of The Day of the Dead
Like Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, Mexico City is one of the great cities of the world. It is layer upon layer of different cultures. There are the majestic and inspiring layers of the Teotihuacan and Toltec peoples of 2800 and 1000 years ago respectively; the amazing ruins of Tenochtitlan of the Mexica (pronounced Meh-shi-ka) or…
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Film & TV New Web Series Delves Deep Into Tel Aviv’s Hookup Scene
One might assume that a web series about internet hookups in Tel Aviv — the Middle East’s party capital — would be gratuitously sexual. But “Confess TLV” is more equivocal than erotic. Based on true stories of people who met online for sex, the eight-part series focuses on the emotional aspect of encounters that are…
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Getting Out of Gaza Was the Easy Part
I have never seen strangeness like this. In a quiet, upscale neighborhood of Jerusalem, my husband, Judah, and I were at an Israeli friend’s exhibit. Michal is a fashion designer. She is from a town in the north of Israel, the type of town with large suburban houses carved into hillsides blooming with fruit trees….
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America’s Orchestras Are At War — Could More Jewish Musicians Help?
In September, when a last-minute negotiation effort failed, the Philadelphia Orchestra went on strike after an audience had already gathered for its seasonal opening-night gala. Hackles were raised. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported: “‘Shame on you!’ shouted a couple of philanthropists as players walked through the Kimmel Center lobby and out onto a Broad Street picket…
Most Popular
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
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Opinion With killing of Hezbollah’s chief, Israel occupies the inarguable moral high ground
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
In Case You Missed It
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Film & TV How Leonard Cohen — and a Yom Kippur prayer — inspired a coming-of-age epic
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Opinion A year after Oct. 7, Israel has the chance to remake its future — for better or worse
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Opinion Campus protests defined the year since Oct. 7. Could they actually change U.S. policy?
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Special Report At the kibbutz hit hardest on Oct. 7, a wrenching debate over how to rebuild
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