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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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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What Elie Wiesel Taught Me About Being a Writer
It was only a few weeks into my first semester of graduate school that things began to go awry. The M.A. Creative Writing workshop that autumn was led by a writer I admired; my fellow students were savvy and talented, energetic in their critiques of each other’s manuscripts. I’d just returned from a stint working…
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Is New York Times Critic Comparing Trump to Hitler?
Sometimes, when New York Times critic Michiko Kakutani is channeling the voice of Holden Caulfield or over-using the word limn, she can be a tad grating. Other times, though, she still has the capacity to knock one out of the park. That’s the case today with Kakutani’s already-gone-viral review of “Hitler: Ascent, 1889-1939,” which uses…
The Latest
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Is a Jewish Accent Still a Thing — And If So, What Is It?
Over at Atlas Obscura, writer Dan Nosowitz poses a question that all of us have probably thought about at one time or another — Is there such a thing as a Jewish accent? And if so, what is it? And if we can define what it is, is it still a thing? Nosowitz’s answer to…
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Why Westworld Is a 21st Century Golem Story
Adam, the first man, was, like Shakespeare’s MacDuff, not of woman born. But neither was he, from his mother’s womb, untimely ripped. He was created from dust, making him (according to the Talmud) the first golem. Probably not true, but significant. An origin story. Many golem stories followed. In the most famous ones, the golem…
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How Our Legal Team Won the Case Against Holocaust Denial
The libel case brought against Deborah Lipstadt in London by the Holocaust denier David Irving came to trial in 2000. I was one of Lipstadt’s attorneys, and 2000 feels like longer than 16 years ago. A world pre-9/11, before the ubiquity of social media and, for Jews, predating the emergence of much debated new forms…
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Rachel Weisz Has a Thing or Two To Say About ‘Denial’
The British actress Rachel Weisz plays historian Deborah Lipstadt in the new film “Denial.” The film resonates with the actress’s own life: Weisz’s father is Jewish; her mother became a Jew, and both fled the Nazis. Weisz met with the Forward’s Jane Eisner recently to talk about the film, her visit to Auschwitz and what…
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Bruce Springsteen’s Jewish Neighbors — and Other Highlights of The Boss’s Autobiography
The first time Jews Bruce Springsteen mentions Jews in his impressionistic new autobiography “Born to Run,” he’s talking about the family who occupied the other half of a duplex his family moved into in 1966. More specifically, and perhaps not surprisingly, it has to do with the family’s two teenage daughters. “In the half we…
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Hollywood Makes Its Case Against ‘Denial’ — Will It Matter?
I first met the historian Deborah Lipstadt years ago, when I was a foreign correspondent based in London. She was visiting the city, and a mutual friend suggested that she get in touch with me. I remember a spirited dinner at our flat, and a walk through Regent’s Park. In the ensuing years, as she…
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The Dark Night of Louis CK
The CK of Louis CK stands for Székely — the family name that was passed down to him from his Hungarian Jewish forbears. But my connection to him is more significant than the shared religion of his Hungarian and my Lithuanian ancestors. He’s three years older than me with two daughters (11 and 14) each…
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Even 1,000 Years Ago, Jerusalem Was a Hotbed of Creativity and Conflict
Like the Metropolitan Museum itself, the new exhibit “Jerusalem, 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven” is meant to be an oasis of sorts, a respite from whatever struggles and conflicts may be happening outside its doors. Or at least that’s the intention. In presenting 400 years worth of medieval art from Jerusalem, the exhibit’s curators Barbara…
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Why Josh Gondelman Is a Rising Star in Stand-Up Comedy
‘We’ll get your name right this time,” says the emcee at The Comic Strip in Manhattan. Josh Gondelman laughs. “Dude, zero problem at all.” He pulls the sleeves of his blue sweater further over his wrists, a smile slowly spreading across his face. “I’m the least uptight about that stuff.” “I know you are, I…
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