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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Film & TV
Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman Is White — Let’s Not Pretend Otherwise
Wonder Woman is, shockingly, the first film in our current decade-plus superhero moment to feature a female lead. But while the film is pioneering in terms of gender representation, in other respects it is not especially innovative. The film does include some black Amazons, and a couple of people of color, but the headline characters…
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‘Mr. Met Is All Of Us Right Now’
In a gesture viewed with shock around the world — ok, just in New York — this past Wednesday night, beloved baseball mascot Mr. Met took the colorfully rebellious step of flipping off a fan. But New York-based writer Sadie Stein thinks we should hold off on the outrage. Last week, pre bird-flipping, Stein, whose…
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Film & TV Kirk Douglas’ New Book Explains How The 100-Year-Old Found True Love
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — When movie star Kirk Douglas married Anne Buydens in Las Vegas, the justice of the peace asked Anne to raise her hand and repeat after him, “I take thee, Kirk, for my lawful husband.” Anne, who had recently arrived in the United States from Europe, raised her hand and proudly proclaimed,…
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EXCLUSIVE: How A Hasidic Dynasty Handles A Succession Crisis
The following essay has been adapted from “Who Shall Lead Us: The Story of Five Hasidic Dynasties in America,” by Samuel Heilman (University of California Press). In his old age, Yoelish Teitelbaum, the first Satmar Rebbe, had outlived his heirs. Although he was leader of the largest Hasidic group in America, with tens of thousands…
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Why I Really Want The Walter Benjamin Biopic To Fail
Writing in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Walter Benjamin quotes 20th century French director and film theorist Abel Gance as saying “Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Beethoven will make films . . . all legends, all mythologies and all myths, all founders of religion, and the very religions . . . await their exposed resurrection, and the…
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Why Did Britain Ban This Klezmer Musician’s #1 Song?
Jake Painter, trumpet player, doesn’t look like much of a rabble-rouser. But the genial-visaged British musician’s band Captain SKA has just released Britain’s most popular song — and gotten it banned from a large portion of the country’s radio stations. What’s the issue? “Liar, Liar” is a catchy, furious takedown of the United Kingdom’s current…
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Why Love Connection’s Andy Cohen Is The Anti-Chuck Woolery
Andy Cohen, executive producer and creative force behind the Real Housewives show, periodically tours the country with Anderson Cooper, where the two tell stories about their lives and take questions from the audience. He also curates the Radio Andy channel on Sirius radio. And he is an author most recently of “The Andy Cohen Diaries:…
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Meet The Keeper Of Venice’s Forgotten Jewish Cemeteries
If you’re fortunate enough to find yourself in Venice during the Biennale, there’s a piece, recently reported on by the New York Times, that seems especially worth your time – Israeli artist Hadassa Goldvicht’s “The House of Life.” “The House of Life,” “a multiscreen video installation that opened this month at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia Museum”…
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Film & TV Will Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels Become TV’s Next ‘Game Of Thrones’?
Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels became a literary phenomenon. Will a televised adaptation of the books meet similar success? The author, who write under a pseudonym and has kept her identity studiously under wraps even after a reporter, last fall, claimed to have “unmasked her,” told The New York Times she thinks expectations should be kept…
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Nudity And Neon Light Up Israel Biggest Arts Festival
JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israel Festival is the closest thing the Jewish state has to a national art event. But director Eyal Sher insists it is not government approved. As evidence, he points to the performances lined up for the annual festival, now in its 56th year, showcasing dance, music, drama and performance theater from Israel…
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Why T.J. Miller’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Character Will Always Be A Legend
For fans of HBO’s “Silicon Valley,” a so-absurd-it’s-almost-believable send up of the world’s most famous tech hub, T.J. Miller’s character Erlich Bachman is a subject of obsession. In a show filled with characters ranging from the merely twitchy to the avowedly Satanist, the crude, self-obsessed, maniacal man-child Bachman is the one that audiences, without fail,…
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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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