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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Yet Another Polish Culture Director Removed From His Post By The PiS Government
“The day after the fall of Khrushchev, the editors of Pravda, Izvestiia, the heads of the radio and television were replaced; the army wasn’t called out. Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications.” So writes Umberto Eco in his essay “Towards a Semiological Guerrilla Warfare.” I very much doubt that Piotr Glinski,…
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The Secret Jewish History of The J. Geils Band
Guitarist John “Jay” Geils Jr., a jazz-minded musician who formed a blues trio in college that would evolve into the hit-making rock group the J. Geils Band, died on Tuesday at age 71 at home in Groton, Mass. The group was formed in Boston in 1969, and remained a regional powerhouse until it hit big…
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The Talmudic Case Against United Airlines
The violent ejection of a passenger from a United Airlines flight on Monday has received international attention. It has been condemned not just as bad business (which it surely is) but as a symptom of American class warfare and the creeping callousness of American corporate culture. As horrified as I was by the treatment of…
The Latest
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How One Word Changed The Course Of World War II
One of the most tightly-written communications in military history came more than 60 years before Twitter. On Dec. 22, 1944, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe had to be awoken from a nap during the Battle of the Bulge when a German delegation arrived at the U.S. encampment in Bastogne, a Belgian town. English and German letters…
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Judith Leiber, Handbag Queen, Was A Jewish Immigrant Success Story
Judith Leiber’s life was one long surprise: Intended by her parents to go into the cosmetics industry, she chose to pursue handbag design, becoming the first female member of the Hungarian Handbag Guild. She survived the Holocaust first by living in a one-bedroom Budapest apartment with 25 other Jews, then in a ghetto basement where…
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Jian Ghomeshi’s Comeback Is The Worst Possible Passover Podcast
With Passover looming, it is a fine time to meditate on the idea of exile. As we know from the Haggadah, we were exiled in the land of Egypt, enslaved by the Pharaoh, and eventually liberated and returned to our native land in Israel. We remind ourselves of the story year after year, of the…
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WATCH: KISS’s Gene Simmons Delivers Emotional Tribute To Chuck Berry
On April 9, the late, great rock ‘n’ roll icon Chuck Berry was laid to rest. His funeral, a four-hour affair marked by performances by Berry’s collaborators and tributes from fans ranging from Paul McCartney to Bill Clinton (both in absentia), took place at St. Louis’s Pageant Theater. Berry, a St. Louis native, lived there…
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Marvel Apologizes For Comic With Hidden Anti-Semitic Content
Marvel Comics has released a statement saying that it will be taking “disciplinary action” against one of its artists after the shocking discovery of hidden anti-Semitic and hard-line Islamist references in an X-men comic book. “X-Men Gold #1” was released last Wednesday. It had been well-received until controversy erupted over the weekend when the references…
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‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’ Wins Record 9 Olivier Awards
“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the two-part stage play that, premiering in London last summer, imagined an adult continuation of J.K. Rowling’s beloved series about teenage magicians, won a record-breaking nine Olivier Awards on April 9. The Oliviers, which are presented annually, are Britain’s top theatrical awards. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the…
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WATCH: Marcel Marceau’s Most Eloquent and Powerful Pantomime
Ten years ago, Marcel Marceau — the world’s greatest pantomime — died, and the world of wordless theater has still never really recovered. Here at the Forward, we feel a special affinity for Marceau, a member of the French Resistance during World War II who reportedly used pantomime techniques to help children escape the Holocaust….
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Some Advice About What To Read On Passover
There’s a nice seasonal post from Martha Anne Toll that’s being republished over at The Millions today. In it, Toll recommends eight books to read over the course of the Passover holiday, particularly in our current climate of “persecution and forced emigration,” as she puts it. The choices include titles by Aharon Appelfeld, Lucette Lagnado…
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