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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What Is New York’s Most Distinctive Surname? Hint: It Starts With A ‘C’
Analyzing data from the 2000 U.S. Census, mental_floss’s Simon Davis discovered that Cohen is New York’s most distinctive surname. If that news has prompted you to wonder at the apparent preeminence of Jews on the East Coast, not so fast: An unscientific analysis of U.S. Census data from 2010 shows we’re likely far less popular…
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In Israel, Even The Dogs Dress Up For Purim
In Tel Aviv, Purim is not just a holiday for humans. Plenty of dogs are decked out in fashionable costumes. One dog I saw was dressed like a lion. The dog-lion attracted claps and whistles from passersby. Another more feminine dog wore a headband with a pink sequined bow, and still another had an elaborate…
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Is The Guggenheim’s New Exhibit Just A Tad Too Self-Regarding?
The reason you and I are able to read almost half of Shakespeare’s plays is that two actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, were among the first to perform them. The duo saved portions of Shakespeare’s scripts — in his era, rather than receiving the full text of a play, actors were given only their…
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The Most Distinctive Surname In New York Is, Unsurprisingly, Jewish
Where do American Jews live, you wonder? Set your preconceptions aside: It turns out, based on a somewhat arbitrary analysis of last names, that a lot of them live in New York and New Jersey. (That, in case you missed it, was a joke.) This information comes from mental_floss’s Simon Davis, who looked, this past…
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Will Lars Von Trier Be Allowed To Show His New Trump Inspired Film At Cannes?
With titles like “The Idiots,” and “Antichrist,” it’s no surprise that Danish director Lars von Trier is always getting himself into trouble. Most famously, back in 2011 during an interview at Cannes, the director said “I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew … Then it…
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Elena Ferrante Novels To Be Adapted For TV — By Director Of Film About Israeli Occupation
In the last few years, Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, which concluded with 2014’s “The Story of the Lost Child,” have taken the literary world by storm. Now, Italian director Saverio Costanzo will spearhead their adaptation into a 32-episode television series. While the novels’ imminent adaptation for television was first announced in February, Costanzo’s involvement is…
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Why William F. Buckley’s ‘Firing Line’ Provides The Antidote To Today’s Political Debate
We are currently dealing with two pernicious and complementary problems in our country: politicians ranging from imbecilic to evil (often both) and a degraded, debased, public discourse. Both problems feed on one another, and it is difficult to say which came first (i.e. Trump speaks and thinks like an imbecile, thus every time we want…
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Eli Wallach And Anne Jackson Archives Find University Of Texas Home
The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, a research library dedicated to maintaining the word of artists and writers, will provide a permanent home for the papers of Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. The married couple, method actors who met when both were cast in a 1946 Broadway production of Tennessee…
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At The National Jewish Book Awards, Nostalgia — And An Acrobatic Tie — Reigned Supreme
As literature elevates, it is occasionally important to elevate literature, which is, perhaps, why the 2017 National Jewish Book Awards took place in a Manhattan penthouse with a view so stunning as to distract a journalist from her notes. And as literature delights with piquant details, it was appropriate that Michael Chabon, attending to receive…
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The Incredible Holocaust Photographs Of Henryk Ross Show Daily Life In The Lodz Ghetto
From 1940 to 1944, photographer Henryk Ross documented life inside the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. Officially, Ross worked for the ghetto’s Jewish Administration’s Statistics department, photographing the Jewish ghetto’s inhabitants for identification cards and for propaganda images to be used by the Nazis. When Ross was not working in his bureaucratic capacity however, he risked…
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What Does Billy Crystal Love About Being Jewish?
(JUF News via JTA) The inimitable Billy Crystal is back on the road. The six-time Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, producer, director and writer — most recently of a book of essays, “Still Foolin’ ‘Em: Where I’ve Been, Where I’m Going, and Where the Hell Are My Keys” — is currently touring the U.S. with his…
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