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
-
In Odessa, Everyone Has a Jewish History — And They’re Not Keeping it Secret Anymore
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Once, Odessa was very much a Jewish city. Before World War II, a third of those living in the Ukrainian port city were Jewish. According to the latest census, the Jewish population today is roughly 1%. And yet, during a recent trip to Ukraine, I was surprised…
-
Can the Simple Act of Writing Bring Muslims and Jews Closer Together?
I am a longtime believer in the power of writing by hand, but it took a museum exhibit in a converted mosque in Beersheba, Israel, to teach me that the bridge among Chinese culture, the Islamic world and Western civilization was made of paper. Two thousand years ago, paper was invented in China, and it…
-
Why Jazz Fans Are Mourning the Closing of a Chicago Hardware Store
Earlier today, the website dnainfo reported some sad news out of Chicago – the closing of Meyer’s Ace Hardware. Why should we care about the closure of a hardware store in Chicago’s sprawling south side area (aside from the obvious sadness of yet another small business shutting down)? Well, Meyer’s Ace Hardware is one of…
The Latest
-
Jewish Architect Richard Neutra’s Home Named as One of 24 New National Historic Landmarks
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced 24 new National Historic Landmarks. The newly designated sites, which include landmarks ranging from a 12th-century village site in Iowa to the site of the Kent State Massacre, “depict different threads of the American story that have been told through activism, architecture, music and religious observance,”…
-
In France, a Vexing Dilemma: Collaborate or Resist?
Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died under Nazi Occupation By Anne Sebba St. Martin’s Press, 457 pages, $27.99 The perspective of time and new primary sources are chipping away at myths about resistance and collaboration under Nazi rule. Last year, for instance, the French response to defeat and occupation was…
-
On The Eve Of Trump’s Inauguration, This Exhibition Of Protest Photography Is As Fresh As Ever
How exactly should one photograph a political demonstration? There are a few schools of thought, I imagine, and it may be helpful to think of these approaches in similar terms to those used to discuss the various approaches to literary translation – both translators and photographers work across languages in order to best make a work…
-
A Second Coming for Jesus — at the Israel Museum
‘It turns out that all Israeli art is about Jesus,” an American tourist said to me as he moved away from a painting in The Israel Museum’s paradigm-shifting new exhibit titled “Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art.” In Hebrew, the title is a bit different: Zeh Ha’Ish, or “This Is the Man.” Throughout the…
-
Was Some Nazi Art Actually Pretty Good?
If you find yourself in Munich between now and March, then William Cook of The Spectator.” The exhibition, if you hadn’t guessed from the time frame, focuses on modernism, showing work by the likes of Gerhard Richter and Karel Appel. To hear Cook tell it, the exhibition is interesting, but relatively safe. Artist like Appel…
-
Will ‘Candide’ Help NYC Opera’s ‘Garden Grow?’
Candide might have been an idiot. But the New York City Opera was no fool to stage the operetta, which closed on Sunday after a two-week run. Voltaire’s novella is well suited to light opera, a madcap satire on 18th century Europe. And the work of composer Leonard Bernstein, librettist Hugh Wheeler, producer Harold Prince…
-
The Holocaust Memoir I Didn’t Help Write — And Wish I Had
This article originally appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. Nolan Gurfinkiel belonged to the dwindling tribe of Holocaust survivors who used to eat at my parents’ Shabbos table. He was a Schindler Jew, one of about 1,200 Krakow Jews who survived through the good offices of Oskar Schindler, Europe’s most famous Righteous Gentile. Nolan wore dark…
-
Richard Spencer’s Master’s Thesis Was an Anti-Semitic Critique — of a Jewish Philosopher
There’s lots to be puzzled by when it comes Richard Spencer, popularizer of the term “alt-right,” the label preferred by contemporary white supremacists. Given that white Europeans colonized America (brutally, we might add), how does he justify thinking the country fundamentally belongs to them? As certain press outlets — in moves of misjudgment that seem…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
- 3
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 4
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
-
Fast Forward In Reykjavik, Hanukkah offers a chance for Iceland’s tiny, isolated Jewish community to come together
-
Opinion When my children decorate for Hanukkah, I don’t just see pride. I see pluralism in action.
-
Fast Forward ‘The most Australian name’: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation’s grief
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
