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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The Angel Of Cairo: How Spain Saved Egypt’s Jews After The Six Day War
On June 21, 1967, with the Arab world still smarting from their stunning defeat in the Six Day War, the Spanish government undertook a secret operation to free hundreds of Jews from Egyptian prisons. At the outbreak of the Six Day War, Egypt arrested hundreds of Jews – “at least one from each family, in…
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Books Messianic Jewish Publisher Sparks Ultra-Orthodox Anger at Israeli Book Week
An ultra-Orthodox group filed a complaint with Jerusalem police after HaGefen, a Messianic Jewish publisher, offered a new translation of the Bible to teenagers at Israel’s annual Hebrew Book Week. Yad L’Achim, a prominent activist group that has been known for harassing Christian missionaries to Israel and voicing opposition to Arab-Israeli marriages, complained that the…
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How To Make A Yiddish Classic When You Don’t Know Any Yiddish
Documentarian Joshua Z. Weinstein, 33, who dubs himself a humanist filmmaker, says he never wanted to make a Jewish movie, but rather one that explores the interplay (maybe the clash) between faith and modernity. It’s almost — but not quite — incidental that his characters are Yiddish-speaking Hasidim, members of the most austere sects living…
The Latest
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Books Jewish Converts in the Russian Empire
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Ellie R. Schainker, “Confessions of the Shtetl: Converts from Judaism in Imperial Russia, 1817-1906” (Stanford University Press) In Sholem Asch’s novel “Petersburg,” Madam Kvasnetsova, an interesting Jewish woman who has converted to Christianity, owns a house in St. Petersburg and an inn for Jews who come to…
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Why Being A Hairstylist Honors My Jewish Family Traditions
There’s an off-Broadway comedy show that has been around for several years, “My Son The Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy.” The title pokes fun at a stereotype that has Jewish parents disappointed because their child didn’t become a lawyer or a doctor. Like most children of Jewish families whose forebears immigrated to the United States from…
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Why I Can’t Even Bring Myself To Hate Father’s Day
If you’ve read this far you’ve probably done more to observe Father’s Day than you need to. Or you liked the photo of David Beckham who is, it has to be said, a smoking hot dad. Here are some links to help you understand my disinterest in a holiday that’s specifically designed to celebrate me…
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Is There Anything More American Than The Ten Commandments?
Many of us hold the Ten Commandments to be personally significant, whether it’s because we find them religiously meaningful or because we just love the epic 1956 Charlton Heston film “The Ten Commandments.” But for historian Jenna Weissman Joselit, who wrote the column Wonders of America for the Forward for 16 years, they’re a focal…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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,…
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