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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Indignant Philip Roth Film Oozes With Yearning and Nostalgia
The title “Indignation” doesn’t suggest a movie about nostalgia. But “Indignation,” directed by James Schamus and based the 2008 novel by Philip Roth, is about nostalgia in its purest form — about the way time slips through our fingers, about the bittersweet solace of memory, and about how every choice has unforeseen and irreversible consequences….
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The Secret Loneliness of Art Collector Rhoda Pritzker
The Yale Center for British Art has just reopened after an extensive building conservation project. On the fourth floor is Paul Mellon’s British art collection, and on the third floor, now through August 21, is the opening exhibition, “Modernism and Memory, Rhoda Pritzker and the Art of Collecting.” Seventy-two paintings, drawings and sculptures were gifted…
The Latest
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Forward Looking Back
1916 100 Years Ago Socialists Need Not Apply Socialists are treyf for the New York City Board of Education, but bribes are apparently kosher. We know this because a local schoolteacher named Gabriel Simon, a well-known socialist active on the Lower East Side, recently took the exam to become a principal and scored the highest…
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I.L. Peretz’s Bitter Critique of Passivity
This month, Anne reads “Bontche Shweig,” by Isaac Loeb Peretz (1852-1915) Did the Enlightenment come to the Jewish world like a thunderclap? Like a mist drifting in? Like an alarm clock penetrating a deep sleep? It doesn’t matter. It came, and with it a writer who could stand outside and inside at the same time….
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The Veg-O-Matic and 6 Other Great Moments in Ronco History
Mr. Microphone “Hey, good looking! We’ll be back to pick you up later!” By broadcasting your voice over the radio, Mr. Microphone would boost your social life, ignite a party or enhance your musical chops. Highlight of its classic TV spot include a roller-skating granny who shouts, “I got one, and I love it!” Veg-O-Matic…
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How Infomercial Guru Ron Popeil Brought Jewish Salesmanship to the Masses
Read this article, and marvel at an exhibit in Elmhurst, Illinois! But wait, there’s more! You’ll learn the incredible exploits of Samuel and Raymond Popeil, and their empire of gadgets and gizmos! Isn’t that amazing? But wait! There’s Samuel’s Popeil estranged son, Ron Popeil, who created Ronco to best his father! That might have been…
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Orthodox Beatboxers Cut From ‘America’s Got Talent’
Two Orthodox Jewish beatboxers failed to advance on “America’s Got Talent” after wowing the judges in the initial round of the TV competition. Ilan Swartz-Brownstein and Josh Leviton, both of Manhattan, did not survive in the “Judge Cuts” episode that aired Tuesday night, The Oregonian reported. The show showed a brief segment of their performance….
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Remembering Garry Marshall, the Jewiest Non-Jew in Hollywood
(JTA) — If there were a competition for the most Jewish-seeming non-Jew, the late Garry Marshall would have topped the podium (or sat on the bimah). The director, writer and actor, who died Tuesday at age 81, was so often mistaken for a Jew that the misconception was mentioned in a number of his obituaries….
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5 Jewish things about the moon
Since 1969 — when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the moon — six missions have successfully landed men on the moon, though since 1972 the only human presence on the moon has been the remotely controlled actions of rovers and small orbiting spacecraft. In honor of National…
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Why Are the Chinese So Obsessed With the Jews?
In China today, shoppers snap up self-help books about how be smart, rich, and have successful children supposedly by imitating Jews. At least ten universities in China offer Jewish Studies programs. This popularity is in spite of, or due to, the fact that there are almost no Jews in China. “The Image of Jews in…
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Towards a Kosher Definition of American Single Malt Whiskey
American whiskey producers are banding together to distill the definition of an American single malt whiskey. Scotch single malts are clearly and legally defined as whisky made from 100% malted barley that is the product of a single distillery, and aged in used wooden casks for at least three years. There are some more small…
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Culture A Jewish prophet of the 1980s would be horrified to see that we didn’t heed his warnings
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Opinion This is the most disorienting Rosh Hashanah in memory
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Fast Forward Meet Lev Kreitman, who brought down Tel Aviv shooter and survived Nova music festival on Oct. 7
In Case You Missed It
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Oct. 7: One Year Later On the eve of this grim anniversary, what we can — and cannot — control
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Fast Forward Antisemitism hits record high in the U.S.; new report shows most-ever incidents in single year
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Culture He founded the Harlem Globetrotters and is the shortest man in the basketball hall of fame. A new book tells his story.
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Oct. 7: One Year Later One year after Oct. 7, a Yom Kippur ritual of communal mourning takes on fresh meaning
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