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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Betsy DeVos Allegedly Plagiarized This Education Organization. Here’s Their Response.
Tuesday, January 31 brought an unexpected development in the already fraught battle over the confirmation of Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump’s nominee for Education Secretary. As The Washington Post reported, written responses DeVos delivered to Senator Patty Murray, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pension, appeared to plagiarize multiple sources,…
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How Hannah Arendt Is Being Used and Misused in the Age of Trump
Hannah Arendt, who wrote extensively about authoritarianism, the nature of evil, and power, is having a bit of a moment. Currently circulating the internet (my twitter feed, at least) are two interesting articles regarding the Jewish philosopher’s legacy. First, we have Zoe Williams’ piece for The Guardian, “Totalitarianism in the age of Trump: Lessons from…
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Why The National Endowment for the Arts Is So Vital To America
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering eliminating The National Endowment for the Arts, according to a widely cited but unconfirmed report on plans for sweeping Federal budget cuts that was published in The Hill. The idea of removing the NEA has been sparking outrage in America’s artistic and literary community. “The estimated security cost for…
The Latest
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WATCH: How Charlie Chaplin Captured the Immigrant Experience 100 Years Ago
Hopeful individuals and families cross an ocean, only to arrive in a strange country where, still culturally and financially at sea, they scrape by dint of their wiles and compassion for one another. Yes, Charlie Chaplin’s 1917 short film “The Immigrant” presents a romanticized caricature of the immigrant experience. Still, in a time when the…
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Why Nazi Propaganda Is Not As Relevant As You Might Think
One of the first things viewers see at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s traveling exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda,” which recently opened at the U.N., is a quote from 1924 by Adolf Hitler: “Propaganda is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.” And, as the exhibition will show,…
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These Are America’s Most Endangered Jewish Communities
There are 51 names on the list of the dead and the dying. They range in condition from having been diagnosed with a fatal disease, to being in the throes of death, to having already passed from this world, nothing left but a memory. They are in Niagara Falls, New York, and Lake Charles, Louisiana,…
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Why Israel’s Bestseller List Is a Threat to Hebrew Literature
Books in translation increasingly dominate Israel’s best-seller list, and some see a serious threat to Hebrew-language writers in the trend. This week’s bestseller list, published in Haaretz, includes a whopping nine titles in translation out of ten top slots in fiction sold at independent bookstores. It will take only one additional foreign bestseller to reduce…
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Richard Spencer’s Awful Response to Quebec Murders
As is well known by now, Canadian police allege that on Sunday Alexandre Bissonnette, a French Canadian White Nationalist who is reportedly a fan of Marine LePen walked into a mosque at prayer in Quebec City and opened fire, killing at least six people and wounding many more. Regis Labeaume, the mayor of peaceful Quebec…
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The Guide To The Alt Right’s Memes That You Wish You Didn’t Need
Last week, Vice published a guide to help you navigate the worst that America has to offer: alt-right/Nazi/fascist/racist memes. As Justin Caffier of Vice points out, “Internet memes are, by and large, the currency in which these young nationalists trade, eschewing the stuffy, articulated treatises of ‘Mein Kampf’ in favor of more virality-friendly catchphrases and…
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How Publishers Are Already Taking Action Against Trump’s “Muslim Ban”
Comma Press is the first publisher to respond to the “Muslim ban” with a pledge to spend 2018 exclusively publishing work from the seven countries whose citizens are currently barred from entering the U.S. “We have decided to feature on our translation imprint only writers from the countries affected by the ban – Syria, Iraq,…
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Spicer Continues The White House’s Disgraceful Line On The Holocaust
It should come as no surprise that “I’m sorry” does not seem to be in the current administration’s vocabulary. Following the widespread backlash against Donald Trump’s disgraceful Holocaust Memorial Day statement (you can read my piece on all the statement’s problems here), White House Secretary Sean Spicer doubled down on the statement in a press…
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