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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The Secret Jewish History Of James Bond
Editor’s Note: Sir Roger Moore, who gained fame for playing the role of James Bond in the 1970’s and ’80s has died at the age of 89. In his honor and in his memory, we present our own history of James Bond. It’s hard to imagine anyone less Jewish — or more goyish — than…
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Why The Big Basquiat Sale Is Art’s Capitalist Apocalypse
An untitled painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold on May 15th for $110.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction. To which the only sensible response is – so what? Imagine for a moment that it was not a painting that had been purchased, but rather a yacht. Suddenly the interest, for most people, is gone – “billionaire purchases…
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A Eulogy For Alan Mintz — A Person In His Fullness
Editor’s Note: The following is a eulogy that was delivered at Alan Mintz’s funeral on May 22, 2017. Alan was my friend, my havér, my colleague, my confidant, my thought-partner, my fellow davener and fellow dreamer. His last great project, which he completed to perfection, was dedicated to Shay Agnon’s long-neglected masterpiece, Ir umelo’ah, A…
The Latest
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How This Film About Modern Orthodox Women Turned Into A Surprise Hit
(JTA) — It’s safe to call the Israeli film “The Women’s Balcony” the opposite of a Hollywood blockbuster. The movie, directed by Emil Ben-Shimon, is a sensitive, slice-of-life story that focuses on the rift caused in a modern Orthodox community in Jerusalem when a Hasidic rabbi offers to fill in for the congregation’s leader, who…
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One Author, Two Radically Different Holocaust Stories
Hell’s Traces: One Murder, Two Families, Thirty-Five Holocaust Memorials By Victor Ripp Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 224 pages, $25 By Julia M. Klein Victor Ripp, an American academic and author, is the descendant of two European Jewish families that met radically different fates. On his mother’s side, the Kahans, a wealthy clan skilled at the…
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The Secret Jewish History of ‘Twin Peaks’
Once upon a time, before “Transparent,” before “Mad Men,” before “The Wire,” even before “The Sopranos,” there was “Twin Peaks.” Aired in prime time on ABC-TV, “Twin Peaks,” which debuted in April 1990, was the first TV series that aspired to the creative level of independent cinema, driven by the quirky vision of filmmaker David…
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This Painting Was Stolen 200 Years Ago – That’s Why We See It Differently
There are two great paintings titled “Return of the Prodigal Son,” one by Rembrandt and one by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo – neither of which is housed in its painter’s country of origin. The Rembrandt version is housed in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, while the Murillo is housed in the National Gallery in Washington D.C….
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Is Donald Trump The Subject Of An Actual Witch-Hunt?
This morning, President Trump declared himself to be the subject of “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” With all due respect to the president — I guess — his declaration seems unfounded. That’s partially because witch-hunts are traditionally baseless, where investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election are fueled…
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The Secret Jewish History Of Chris Cornell And Soundgarden
Rock vocalist Chris Cornell, who died early this morning at age 52 after performing a concert in Detroit with his Grammy Award-winning grunge-rock outfit Soundgarden, will be best remembered for the group’s massive 1994 hit, “Black Hole Sun.” Released in the wake of grunge avatar Kurt Cobain’s suicide (Cornell’s death is being investigated as a…
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Insightful Biography of Hebrew Poet H. N. Bialik Misses Key Element
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Why and how did Hayim Nahman Bialik become Israel’s national poet? Avner Holtzman, a professor of Hebrew literature at Tel Aviv University, poses this very question in his new biography, “Hayim Nahman Bialik: Poet of Hebrew”, published as part of the “Jewish Lives” series by Yale University…
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Film & TV Will ‘Wizard Of Lies’ Bring Out The Anti-Semites? Barry Levinson Doesn’t Care
There is a major surprise in “The Wizard of Lies, Barry Levinson’s film about the Bernie Madoff scandal, which premieres on May 20 on HBO and is based on the reporting of Diana B. Henriques: It’s possible to feel a modicum of sympathy for a despicable human being. The film stars Robert DeNiro as Bernie…
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