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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Remembering Dorothy Parker, Quip Queen And NAACP Ally
On August 22, 1893, the celebrated author, humorist and cultural critic Dorothy Parker was born. She died at age 73 after a lifetime of writing witty, biting work. “Of course I talk to myself. I like a good speaker, and I appreciate an intelligent audience,” she famously wrote. Parker, who lived with her finger pressed…
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How The Holocaust Shaped The Career Of The Late, Great Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory, the activist and comedian who died on August 19 at age 84, used tragedies of modern Jewish history to illuminate the civil rights struggles of African-Americans. As described in his memoir, out next month from Amistad Books, Gregory marched and was jailed alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers. From his…
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Concerns About Censorship Soar As Russia Detains Director
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A prominent Russian theater director who has lamented what he says is the lack of freedom and growing social conservatism in his country was detained on Tuesday and accused of embezzling state funds. Russia’s Investigative Committee said it suspected Kirill Serebrennikov of embezzling at least 68 million rubles ($1.15 million) in state…
The Latest
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When Tony Kushner Destroyed A Confederate Monument On Broadway
While the country ruminates over the ethics of removing Confederate statues, the Broadway show “Caroline, or Change” already approached the issue – in 2004. When Tony Kushner wrote the musical with Jeanine Tesori – he provided book and lyrics, while she wrote the music – he intended it to be shocking. “It would have been…
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Love In The Time Of Scholarship, Courtesy of Rachel Kadish
The Weight of Ink By Rachel Kadish Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 592 pages, $28 By now, it’s a familiar trope: stories set in the past and the present, at once parallel and intersecting, linked by writing that survives through the centuries. The many forerunners of Rachel Kadish’s new historical fiction, “The Weight of Ink,” include Tom…
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Why The Solar Eclipse Must Be Bad For The Jews — Or So Says The Talmud
Across the United States, Jews are gathering in anticipation of the historic Great American Eclipse, particularly in cities known as ideal spots to experience the phenomenon. But at the downtown Brith Shalom Beth Israel synagogue Sunday evening, nestled in the historic southern city perfectly positioned for the Monday event, Dr. Jeremy Brown had bad news…
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Music The Secret Jewish History of The National
The alternative rock band The National is backed by Jewish twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner
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Jerry Lewis, The Comic Genius Who Never Had To Remind Us He Was A Jew
Jerry Lewis, the Jewish comedian and filmmaker who died on August 20 at age 91, will be remembered for more than “Cinderfella” (1959), “The Ladies Man” (1961), “The Nutty Professor” (1962), and a handful of other funny movies. A premier Jewish clown of American cinema, his innovative understanding of the medium ensured that his ethnic…
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Is Nathan Englander’s New Spy Novel Really About Ariel Sharon?
Dinner at the Center of the Earth By Nathan Englander Knopf, 272 pages, $26.95 In “A Horse Walks Into a Bar,” David Grossman’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel, Dovaleh Greenstein stages, under the pretext of a standup comedy set, a moral reckoning, a public wrestling match with his demons, which of necessity are also, in part,…
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16 Members Quit Trump Arts And Humanities Committee
Update, 4:55 pm: As Sopan Deb of The New York Times reported, the White House has now issued a statement claiming that President Trump’s administration had already decided to not to “renew the Executive Order for the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH), which expires later this year.” Updated, 3:45 pm: George…
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Why These 5 Statues Of Rabid Anti-Semites Are Still Standing
As the national debate roils over monuments of those who oppressed groups — this past week, regarding Robert E. Lee, Confederate army general and slaveholder — it makes me think about the significance of a memorial, altogether. After all, monuments are more than just portrayals in stone or bronze. They are daily reminders of a…
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