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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Why We Need To Abolish The Pledge Of Allegiance Now
The “Prayer For Our Country” (or “Prayer For The Country” or “…The Nation”) takes place in synagogues across America (and elsewhere) every Saturday. Those of us who have been to synagogue are familiar with its text. On the face of it, it’s a platitudinous interlude before returning to the religious task at hand. But the…
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What Would Gertrude Stein Say? Visit This Statue And Find Out
What would Gertrude Stein say? In most cases, the answer would likely be “If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon,” or perhaps, for special occasions, “The devil what the devil what do I care if the devil is there.” But to be absolutely sure, starting in July, you can visit…
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New Opera Tells Story Of Robert Moses And Jane Jacobs — In The City Where They Battled
“That could be cocaine, Lydia!” an older woman exclaimed as her friend knelt to retrieve a small plastic bag dropped by a passing stranger. “A lot of Jews are lactose intolerant,” a nearby man observed. The strangers stood close together on the ground floor of the glossy Lower Manhattan transit hub of Fulton Center. It…
The Latest
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National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene To Host Immigration Arts Summit
In July, within sight of the Statue of Liberty, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene will host a two-day immigration arts summit. The event, scheduled for July 17 and 18, will coincide with the Folksbiene’s presentation of the original musical “Amerike — The Golden Land,” which opens July 4. Like that production, the summit will take…
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Film & TV Why The Transformers Movies Are Really Stories Of Jewish Resilience and Adaptability
With the release of the fifth installment of the “Transformers” franchise upon us, it seems like an appropriate time to reveal that they are Jewish. The Transformers are giant robots who can change themselves into everyday objects, including cars, airplanes, trucks and tanks. They excel at mimicry, morphing between machine and robot with chameleon-like ease,…
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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…
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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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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
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Holy Ground A Jewish farmer broke ground on a synagogue in an Illinois cornfield. His neighbors showed up to help.
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News Protesters picket Manhattan synagogue over Israel real estate sale, testing Mamdani and new law
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