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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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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The Secret Jewish History of ‘Fences’ Author August Wilson
The long-awaited film version of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson’s “Fences” opens nationally on Sunday, December 25. The movie is being touted as Oscar bait for Denzel Washington, who both stars in and directs the film, and for his co-star Viola Davis. (The film reprises their roles in the 2010 Broadway revival of this Pulitzer-…
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Looted Nazi Artwork Headed to Swiss Museum – Until Rightful Owners Can Be Found
After a fraught legal battle, a Munich court today determined that the art hoard of the late Cornelius Gurlitt – much of which is thought to have been stolen from its rightful owners by the Nazis – must, in accordance with Gurlitt’s will, be transferred to Switzerland’s Kunstmuseum Bern. Gurlitt’s instructions had been challenged by…
The Latest
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Music Dear Mariah Carey, All I Want for Christmas Is a Non-Denominational Version of Your Song
“Last Christmas,” the 1980s hit by pop duo Wham! could just as easily have been called “Last Pesach.” John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” is a Vietnam War protest, not a Christian song. And, while “White Hanukkah” is not quite as catchy as Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” there is nothing overtly…
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America Under Nazi Rule and 8 Other Things to Read, Watch, and Do This Weekend
In the arts, it’s the time of the year when everyone’s inclined to look back. What were the best artistic moments of the year? Books? Movies? At the Forward, we’re doing that too, but we’re also thrilled about what’s in store artistically in the future. That starts with this week, which brings great new book…
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The Audacity of Writing the Netflix Barack Obama Biopic
The man who famously begged his toddler to Go the Fuck to Sleepis back with a project that sounds Presidential by comparison. That’s not a slight; Adam Mansbach’s the screenwriter behind “Barry,” a new film about a bookish Columbia junior who – one day – will become the 44th President of the United States. As…
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Lupe Fiasco Drops an Anti-Semitic Track — Then Makes It Worse
Chicago native Lupe Fiasco, who has been called “one of the greatest MCs to ever grace the mic,” is facing controversy over the anti-Semitic lyrics in his recently released track “N.E.R.D.” a low-tech freestyle over J. Cole’s “Everybody Dies.” The track, whose sole purpose seems to be to indulge in some standard, if justified, hip-hop…
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Ezra Jack Keats Honored With Tribute to ‘The Snowy Day’
As 2016 winds down to a chilly close, it’s time to say “Happy 100th Birthday” to Ezra Jack Keats, the celebrated author of “The Snowy Day.” The classic book for children, published more than 50 years ago, is a tender story of a young African-American boy — clad in a now iconic red-hooded snowsuit — as he…
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Does Google Want Us To Think That Nazis Are Cool?
On Tuesday, Philosopher Nolen Gertz (whose twitter account you should definitely follow if you don’t already) tweeted the following picture (I did my own search to verify – it’s real): Here’s what’s happening in the photo: if you type in the words “Nazis are” into Google, the site will automatically suggest the four following searches:…
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This Jewish Lesbian Activist Helped Take Down a Carjacking Ring — and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
The night Miriam Ben-Shalom helped take down a Milwaukee carjacking ring started, incongruously, at the theater. On October 22, Ben-Shalom, a lesbian activist well-known for her groundbreaking challenges to the military’s ban on gay and lesbian servicepeople, was on a date with her life partner when the duo’s car was threatened at Milwaukee’s Metro Hotel….
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Harper Lee Warned Us About Donald Trump — But We Weren’t Listening
Harper Lee tried to warn America. Twice. The first time she was redirected, politely, to take her nascent characters in a different direction. Lee accepted the editorial advice and produced “To Kill a Mockingbird,” an instant feel-good classic about how great white people can be to and for others. Central to this mythology is Atticus…
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Meet the Holocaust Lawyer Suing the FBI Over Clinton Email Investigation
Los Angeles-based lawyer E. Randol Schoenberg is best known for his work on the restitution of art stolen during the Holocaust; his quest to assist the late Maria Altmann regain Gustav Klimt paintings belonging to her family from the Austrian government was dramatized in the 2015 film “The Woman in Gold,” in which he was…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
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Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
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Fast Forward 38% of American Jews believe in life after death, study finds
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Fast Forward Moved by Oct. 7, Blackstone president donates $125M to Tel Aviv University to address doctor shortage
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