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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How my odious cousin Roy Cohn was responsible for creating Donald Trump — and me
For this author, 'The Apprentice' is a chillingly accurate film that hits way too close to home
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5 Great Moments From Haskell Wexler’s Career
Haskell Wexler, one of the film world’s most gifted cinematographers, has died at the age of 93. A two-time Academy Award winner and three-time nominee for movies such as “Bound for Glory,” “Blaze” and “Matewan,” Wexler was born in 1922 to a Jewish family in Chicago where he befriended future influential publisher Barney Rosset and…
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The Unseen Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine
At Art Basel in Miami a few weeks ago, it rained a lot, and some critics scorned the commercial excess with extra sharpness. For Basel art in Washington on a recent morning, the sun lit the season’s last leaves and intimate galleries showed rarely seen paintings. A room devoted to Chaïm Soutine and Marc Chagall…
The Latest
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Witness to the Prosecution of a Neo-Nazi in Germany
On November 21, 2015, the day that Marcel Zech decided to flaunt his Auschwitz tattoo in a spaßbad in Oranienburg, I had the misfortune of being there as well, together with my nine-year-old son. Seeing that tattoo took my breath away. It permanently shattered the illusion that I have been living under since I arrived…
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The Jew as Not-So-Other at Yiddish New York
“The Jew as Other” is a theme running throughout the programming of this weekend’s Yiddish New York festival, a first-time event intended to perpetuate the decades-old annual Christmas-week gathering in the Catskills of Yiddish newbies, wannabes, and experts that was KlezKamp, which had its final incarnation last December. You could say “The Jew as Other”…
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Yiddish Rep’s Controversial Take on Mideast Conflict
Asked if Mario Diament’s play “Land of Fire” seems almost quaint in the wake of recent terrorist attacks, New Yiddish Rep’s artistic director David Mandelbaum didn’t miss a beat. “The play has more resonance than ever,” he said. “There is a major distinction between an Islamic jihadist state and the valid aspirations of the Palestinians…
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Can a Dry Country Like Israel Quench the World’s Thirst?
Let There Be Water: Israel’s Solution for a Water-Starved World By Seth M. Siegel Thomas Dunne Books 352 Pages $27.99 Water: the sign of salvation, the portal to purity, the source of simcha. It is an inescapable part of Jewish practice, a recurring motif throughout the religious life of a Jew. Jews beseech God daily…
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A Close Encounter With Asia’s Anti-Semitic Capital
On a recent stopover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a cemented-over pile of ugly skyscrapers and canyons strewn with street beggars, I strolled through the garish Twin Towers Shopping Mall. In an underground supermarket, I passed an employee at the fish counter — a short, squat young man who stared at me with violent hatred. I…
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Music Yiddish New York Transports Viewers to an Alternative Universe
During a week in which one can attend a revival of a Yiddish language musical from the golden era of Second Avenue (“The Golden Bride” by the National Yiddish Theatre-Folksbiene, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage through January 3); or enjoy a critically acclaimed updated Broadway staging of “Fiddler on the Roof,” the musical that…
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Bulletproof Stockings, World’s First All-Female Hasidic Rock Band, Gets Debut Album
They’re labeled as the world’s first all female Hasidic rock band, challenging conventions while still keeping the faith, yet alternative-rock band Bulletproof Stockings is taking more than just the Hasidic world by storm. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign and several gigs at secular venues, the group is gearing up to release their debut full length…
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How Dylan Thomas Wrote My Favorite Jewish Christmas Story
We grew up Irish on Chicago’s northwest side. Or maybe Scottish. Possibly Welsh. Somewhere from that general part of the world, anyway. My mother has always been fond of Irish names — she would’ve named me Shawn, she said, if she hadn’t named me after her father, Abe, an inventor with fiery red hair; whenever…
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Why I Still Celebrate Christmas Without Guilt
During the month of December, back when I was 12 and studying for my bat mitzvah, my mom and I would scour the house each Saturday morning before my tutor arrived, in order to locate and hide evidence of Christmas. We had ample time before 1 p.m., but we waited until the last minute to…
Most Popular
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Culture Why saying ‘L’shana Tova’ on Rosh Hashanah may not be the correct phrase
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Fast Forward Was the viral Ta-Nehisi Coates interview a hit piece or fair play? A journalism ethics expert weighs in.
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Culture How my odious cousin Roy Cohn was responsible for creating Donald Trump — and me
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Culture New conspiracy theory just dropped — Jews are causing the hurricanes
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Culture How the closing of a website for Yom Kippur confessions explains the modern internet
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Fast Forward Brown University rejects pro-Palestinian protesters’ demand to divest from Israel
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Fast Forward As Netanyahu pushes US to join fight against Iran, Biden tells Jewish leaders US ‘fully’ backs Israel’s right to defend itself
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Fast Forward German town’s memorial stones for Nazi victims are stolen on Oct. 7 anniversary
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