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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How Russian Immigrants Taught Us What It Means To Be American
Almost 40 years ago, when my husband and I were newlyweds, I spotted a flier on a bulletin board asking about volunteers to assist Russian Jewish immigrants moving to the Twin Cities. “Let’s do it,” I told my husband. “It’s only a six-month commitment. We’ll be in, we’ll be out, and we’ll get some mitzvah…
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Could a Few Good Short Stories Save The Trump Presidency?
In Peter Orner’s new book, “Am I Alone Here? Notes on Living To Read and Reading To Live,” he admits that he reads in taquerias, at traffic lights and “in part, to get away from email.” Illustrated by the cartoonist Eric Orner, the author’s brother, the unusual and deeply personal book is being passed hand-to-hand…
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Paul Newman’s Long Lost Film’s National Debut In Doubt
Jack Garfein, who holds what is believed to be the only print of a recently rediscovered film directed by Paul Newman, has pulled out of a deal shaped in over a year of talks with Turner Classic Movies, the Forward has learned. The film, whose discovery was first reported by the Forward, was set to…
The Latest
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A Turkish Magazine Was Just Shut Down For A Cartoon About Moses
According to a report by the Agence France-Presse (AFP), the magazine Girgir, at one time Turkey’s most successful satirical magazine, was shut down today after the publication of a cartoon depicting Moses. The AFP wrote that the cartoon showed “the bearded Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, with his companions complaining and using vulgar…
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How Did Aaron Copland’s ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ Get Its Name?
For the latest episode of WNYC’s Fishko Files, a radio show dealing with art and culture, Sara Fishko, the show’s host, tackled an old American classic – Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare For The Common Man” which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. On her program, Fishko invites scholars of music and history to discuss the genesis…
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An Anti-Immigration Bill Becomes Law, And More Of The Forward Looking Back
100 Years Ago After a long and difficult struggle, the enemies of free immigration have won a battle. The Burnett Anti-Immigration Bill will become law despite a presidential veto, and will go into effect in May. However, those who support free immigration can take a bit of solace because the anti-immigration forces were compelled to…
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Film & TV Why An Iranian ‘Death Of A Salesman’ Makes Arthur Miller Even More Relevant
Midway through Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman,” Emad, the actor and schoolteacher who serves as the Oscar-nominated film’s protagonist, seizes one of his student’s phones, hoping to delete photos the student has taken of him sleeping. He castigates the boy for the risqué images he finds, telling him his father needs to look at them. A…
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Could This Home Movie Be The Only Film Footage Of Marcel Proust?
A scholar from the Université Laval in Quebec just unearthed the only known film of French author Marcel Proust, best known for his monumental work “In Search of Lost Time.” (It is interesting to note, for our purposes at least that Proust, though raised a Catholic and perhaps anti-Semitic and was therefore Jewish by birth. Exclu…
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Film & TV Why Lincoln Center’s Paul Newman Screening Is A Must-See
When Nicolas Rapold, editor of Film Comment, sits down on Monday February 20 for a Q & A with the director-acting teacher Jack Garfein and the composer David Amram during a program of films called “Newman Directs,” he will be speaking with two 86-year-old men with unusually interesting things to say about the evening’s subject…
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Wallace Shawn Knows Exactly Who His Audience Is: You
It starts, as so many cultural events in New York do, with the invited guests milling around a tastefully decorated space, plucking canapés from trays held aloft by caterers, and eyeing each other as they wait for the speeches to begin — the pitches and thank you’s and asks for money. Looking around at the…
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The Secret Jewish History Of Theater’s Most Famous Skull
Children are often told they can be anything they want when they grow up; they’re less commonly informed that the same rule applies when they die. After all, the philosopher Jeremy Bentham requested that his body be embalmed and put to service as the mascot of University College London, where his physical remains still cheerfully…
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