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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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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The Tragic Story Of Anne Frank’s Brilliant Cousin
Had she known her cousin, Anne Frank might have rephrased a famous statement to read: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really chic at heart.” The French Jewish interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, despite a life of almost unrelieved tragedy — he committed suicide in 1941 at the age of 46 —…
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Where Are All The Tu B’Shvat Songs?
Many Jewish holidays have inspired the people of the book to drop tomes and pick up instruments. And, in the age of YouTube, there’s plenty of evidence for the success of that substitution. And, since Tu B’Shvat — a kind of Jewish Arbor Day — celebrates the rebirth of the natural world, it should be…
The Latest
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‘Girls’ Enters Its Final Season, And More To Read, Watch, And Do This Weekend
It’s almost the weekend, and whether you’re in still-snowy New York or surprisingly rainy Los Angeles, the weather is no excuse to miss out on great cultural events — unless you’re binge-watching past seasons of HBO’s “Girls” in advance of the premiere of its final season, in which case, more power to you. That premiere…
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Covering Simon And Garfunkel Brought This Heavy Metal Star Back To His Jewish Roots
(JTA) — Before David Draiman became famous as the singer of the heavy metal band Disturbed, he trained to be a cantor. That didn’t go so well. Growing up in Chicago, he was expelled from three different yeshivas, and after a rowdy night of Purim drinking as a teenager, he blew up his high school rabbi’s…
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Meet The Philosopher Who’s A Favorite Of Steve Bannon And Mussolini
Steve Bannon is a confusing man. On the one hand, he sells outrageously conservative films; on the other, he made a ton of money off of Seinfeld. On the one hand, he critiques capitalism with an almost Marxist fervor; on the other, he’s an advisor to a crony capitalist real estate mogul. One place where…
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Is That An Angel On Time’s Cover — Or Just Chuck Schumer?
Last week, Time Magazine gave us a glimpse of evil with their Steve Bannon cover. This week, with their Chuck Schumer cover photo (taken by Platon), they’ve given us the opposite (aesthetically speaking). In terms of composition, the two covers are remarkably similar – two faces front and center, nothing else (aside from those hands in…
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Books How To Walk In The Shadow Of Death
This article originally appeared on Plus61J. If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present. —Lao Tzu I believe it is true that, at least in our thoughts, past, present, and future converge…
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Why Was This Italian Artist So Interested in Painting Synagogues?
Nearly 275 years after Alessandro Magnasco’s death, experts still aren’t sure what to make of his work — particularly four paintings of synagogues. Known as il Lissandrino, Magnasco was born 350 years ago Feb. 4th. He wasn’t Jewish, but synagogues were among his most frequent subjects, notes the Cleveland Museum of Art, which owns “Interior…
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Can Microdosing LSD Fix Mood Swings? Ayelet Waldman Tried To Find Out.
Ayelet Waldman was sewing when she picked up the phone, trying to fix a top with a neckline that dipped slightly too low. Her husband, she confessed, is better with a needle than she is, but she’s learning. That husband is the novelist Michael Chabon, and when it comes to their shared life — four…
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Stephen Sondheim Awarded Prestigious PEN Literary Honor
Stephen Sondheim will receive the 2017 PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award, PEN America announced on Wednesday. The organization, which advocates for freedom of literary expression worldwide, annually gives the honor to a writer who, according to their website, “helps us to understand the human condition in original and powerful ways.” Sondheim is the first composer-lyricist…
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Art How the Art World Is Responding to Trump’s Muslim Ban
Hundreds of artists and dozens of prominent museums around the world have signed a strongly worded open letter calling for a reversal of the ban on entry to the US for citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries. “We the undersigned individuals of the international contemporary art field call for the immediate and total overturning of…
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