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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Want To Own A Letter From Proust Complaining About His Neighbor’s Sex Lives?
Marcel Proust is famous for transforming an evocative sensory experience into literary brilliance: I am writing, of course, of the nibble of a madeleine that catalyzed his immortal stroll down memory lane in “Swann’s Way.” The author also, apparently, could turn an unwanted sensory intrusion into fairly amusing epistolary material. Among an astonishing collection of…
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Observing Yom HaShoah, And More To Read, Watch, And Do This Weekend
Yom HaShoah, or Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, will be observed on Monday the 24. In the United States, many Jewish institutions are holding commemorative events on Sunday the 23. In and around New York City, events include The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County’s “Descent Into Darkness,” a conversation with two twins who…
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Nazi Punching: A (Short) Reading List
On April 15th, in Berkeley, we saw an increasingly familiar scene – violence at a political demonstration. At a “Patriots Day” rally, pro-Trump demonstrators, many of them self avowed fascists and Nazis, violently clashed with anti-fascist protestors (commonly referred to as “antifa”). Nazis were punched, Antifa members were punched, and less fringe commentators from each side…
The Latest
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Is This Beaver The Moses Of Canada?
On April 14, Saskatchewan experienced a Passover miracle. Heading out to check on their herd of cattle, ranchers Adrienne and Aaron Ivey saw something nearly as odd as locusts falling from the sky, and much more welcome: A beaver leading 150 of their heifers in a docile march across their property. Why was this beaver…
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Why These Jewish Scientists Will Be Marching On Saturday
David Mogul is marching for more funding. Roy Plotnick is worried about the long-term effects on innovation and Ariel Anbar want to show that “those of us dedicated to the pursuit of new knowledge are not locked away in an ivory tower lab.” The April 22 March for Science — which is taking place in…
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‘Unleavened’ Brings Spirit Of Passover To Stage — With Broadway Royalty
(JTA) — What happens when you cram a bunch of Broadway’s brightest Jewish talent into a room to celebrate a festival-like seder on the last evening of Passover? The answer, as you might have guessed, is much more than a lively rendition of “Dayenu.” On Monday night, Benj Pasek (who penned the lyrics for the “La La Land”…
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Gershom Scholem — Prophet, Provocateur And Prude
George Prochnik has published studies of Stefan Zweig; noise pollution and Sigmund Freud’s contribution to the development of psychology in America. His latest book, “Stranger in a Strange Land: Searching for Gershom Scholem and Jerusalem,” was recently published by Other Press. Recently Mr. Prochnik took time to speak with The Forward’s Benjamin Ivry about Scholem,…
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Breathtaking Postcards Bring Lost Synagogues Back To Life
The sanctuary of the Great Synagogue in Lodz was probably not, in actuality, sour-apple green. Yet in a late 19th- or early 20th-century postcard showcasing the synagogue’s interior, colorized with an outré enthusiasm, a chandelier and sections of the bimah are the color of a doctor’s-office lollipop. That candy-tinted symbol of times past might, when…
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EXCLUSIVE FOR 4/20: The Ten Commandments Of Weed
Editor’s Note: To note the cannabis celebration of 4/20, we have invited prominent marijuana journalist Neal Pollack to offer his commandments with regard to the titular substance along with his textual commentaries. “Now Moses was leading the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, because Jethro was practicing self-care and taking some ‘me time,’ and Moses led…
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Why These Jewish Scientists Will Be Marching On Saturday
David Mogul is marching for more funding. Roy Plotnick is worried about the long-term effects on innovation and Ariel Anbar want to show that “those of us dedicated to the pursuit of new knowledge are not locked away in an ivory tower lab.” The April 22 March for Science — which is taking place in…
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The ‘Unicorn Of Mollusks’ Is The World’s Rarest Treyf
If you are a Jew who either keeps kosher or feels vaguely guilty about not doing so, should you be worried that the world is running out of slimy sea creatures for you to sanctimoniously (and gratefully) refuse to eat? Not anymore: The world’s rarest treyf has been found. It’s appetizingly known as the giant…
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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