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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Film & TV 8 young Jewish comedians on what ‘SNL 50’ means to them
'Saturday Night Live' may be entering middle age, but these rising Jewish comics are just getting started.
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Jews and Muslims Form Enduring Friendships at Brooklyn Camp
Some of the children who rushed to cool off in the pool on a sunny July morning would not have attended camp together a few years ago. They lived next-door to each other, but their South Brooklyn communities often kept their distance. Now they splash around in the water before lunch, the only traces of…
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In Delmore Schwartz’s Stories, a Reader’s Responsibilities Begin
This month Anne reads: “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” by Delmore Schwartz In the first issue of The Partisan Review in 1935 Delmore Schwartz age 21 published this remarkable short story and was instantly recognized as a writer of unusual quality. The story, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” is as powerful today as it was at the…
The Latest
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Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz Wants To Talk Sex Ed, Modern Orthodox Style
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz is ready to talk frankly with Jewish youth about sex — and he thinks you should be, too. Yanklowitz, a central figure in the Open Orthodoxy movement, has called publicly in workshops, speeches and Op-Eds for comprehensive sex education in Orthodox Jewish schools, including accurate, extensive information about STD/STI prevention, sexual and…
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Why I Still Love Barbra Streisand — Even If Her New Duets Album ‘Encore’ Falls Flat
My love for Barbra Streisand is one whose month is ever May. Her idiosyncrasies are to be cherished. Only Streisand could be forgiven for shooting “The Prince of Tides” showing just one side of her face or having Stephen Sondheim rewrite lyrics entirely for her benefit. I tend to refer to her as Babs, not…
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How Sonia Rykiel’s Jewish Family Inspired Her Exultant Art
The fashion designer Sonia Rykiel, who died on August 25 at age 86, was prized as one of the leading lights of French Jewish artistic achievement. Joan Nathan’s “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France” lists Rykiel among prominent Gallic Jews, alongside Marcel Marceau, Anouk Aimée, Simone Signoret, and Nostradamus. Rykiel,…
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Ringling Brothers’ Alana Feld Didn’t Have To Run Away To Join the Circus
After 146 years, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus is packing up its tents for good. For a half-century, the iconic American entertanment company has been owned by the Feld family. Here’s how Alana Feld described her life’s work in the three-ring world in a Forward interview last year. Alana Feld runs her business…
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Learning From The Complex Jewish Stories of FringeNYC
It’s good, it’s bad, it’s very enthusiastic: FringeNYC has been rampaging through the city since August 12th, and will close on August 28th. I’ve been exploring some of the festival’s Jewish-interest offerings, and while some have closed, here’s what I’ve learned. Gilad Shalit’s saga is still compelling Cassie M. Seinuk’s “From the Deep,” which closed…
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Forward Looking Back
1916 100 Years Ago New Faces at Ellis Island There are few Jews in this country that have no connection to Castle Garden or Ellis Island. Each and every Jew laughed and cried, danced and wailed, on Ellis Island. Thousands of Jews would arrive there every day. Their American Jewish families would greet them and…
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Yes, She’s Art Spiegelman’s Daughter. Her Memoir Is Stunning.
At some point, most people I know who can see have had, and then made fun of, a conversation about whether we perceive colors in the same way. It’s a question that’s easy to dismiss, mostly because it tends to be asked in states of something other than sobriety; but it’s not a subject of…
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Menachem Pressler’s Life in Music From Kristallnacht to Lang Lang
The German-born Israeli-American pianist Menahem Pressler will be 93 in December. Best recalled as long-time cornerstone of the Beaux Arts Trio, Pressler has since thrived as a solo performer and collaborative musician. He also continues a distinguished teaching career at the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University and overseas. “This Desire for Beauty”, a book…
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How Pianist Irving Fields Redefined Jewish Music
Irving Fields, the songwriter and pianist who died on August 20 at age 101, revealed talent that transcended the question of what is authentic Jewish music. Born Yitzhak Schwartz in New York to parents from Minsk and Pinsk, he was raised in Coney Island and Bensonhurst. An amateur choir singer, his father got him involved…
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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