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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New Series Forthcoming From Matthew Weiner, Creator of ‘Mad Men’
In yet another win for online entertainment, Matthew Weiner, the Jewish creator of “Mad Men,” has confirmed that he will be creating a new show for Amazon and the Weinstein Company. Since the end of Mad Men’s seven season run (or eight, depending on how you parse it), Weiner has kept busy with a number…
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Books Trump’s Literary Accomplishments, Assessed
Samantha Bee offers up the not-implausible possibility that Donald Trump can’t read. Meanwhile, the Huffington Post has the scoop on a novel Trump had gotten ghostwritten, but that no longer bears his byline. It’s “an incredibly sexist novel,” according to HuffPo’s Todd Van Luling. Were we expecting it to be any other kind? Phoebe Maltz…
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“First Jewish Americans” Were Anxious About Intermarriage, Assimilation — Just Like Us
In 1742 Phila Levy-Franks, the daughter of a well-off family in New York’s growing Jewish community, secretly married the Huguenot Oliver de Lancey. Her mother, Abigail, who had immigrated to the United States from England in 1695, went into mourning and never spoke to her again. It might be harder, now, to find Jewish parents…
The Latest
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How We Tracked Down the Best Yiddish Stories of the Past Century — and More
‘Jews say that if you change where you live you’ll change your luck, but is America really that different?” That’s the first line of an excerpt from Abraham Cahan’s “The Additional Soul,” a story that, translated to English from Yiddish by Jordan Kutzik, appears in the new anthology, “Have I Got a Story For You:…
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How a Jewish Photographer Named Herman Leonard Redefined Jazz
Few people did more to establish jazz’s visual aesthetic than the American Jewish photographer Herman Leonard, who passed away in 2010. Leonard began photographing jazz musicians in the 1940s, often offering club owners and musicians free prints in exchange for access to rehearsal studios. His photographs appeared sporadically in issues of DownBeat and Metronome magazines,…
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The World’s Oldest Jewish Actor Dies at 101
The Russian Jewish actor Vladimir Zeldin, who died at age 101 on October 31, proved that if a performing career is long enough, it can stretch from one dictatorship to another. A mainstay of Moscow’s Red Army Theatre, now known as the Russian Army Theatre, Zeldin’s powerful presence and resonant voice filled this vast, crushingly…
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These Were 10 of the Greatest Artists on Jewish-Owned Chess Records Label
Chess Records, established in Chicago in 1950, was one of American music’s major institutions, helping to establish the hot, electric Chicago Blues sound and pioneer a new type of music known as Rock n’ Roll. Phil and Leonard Chess, brothers and co-founders of the label, were immigrants from a Jewish community in Częstochowa, Poland. After…
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Meet Harry Swimmer — CNN’s Jewish Nominee For Hero of the Year
When CNN announced the ten finalists for their tenth annual “CNN Heroes” special, 86-year-old Harry Swimmer was eating his weekend lox and bagels with family and friends, keeping his best poker face between bites. Swimmer knew he was among the finalists, but had signed a confidentiality agreement, and had even kept the news from his…
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How Blue Pajamas and a Magic Pizza Made a Miracle Happen for the Chicago Cubs
I awoke yesterday morning to find my brain shrouded by fog, echoes of bad decisions emanating from my stomach, and my mouth tasting like the circus had recently left town via my tongue. I staggered to the fridge for some water, and found a small, neatly saran-wrapped square of cheese pizza sitting upon the top…
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The Secret Jewish History of The Day of the Dead
Like Jerusalem, Athens and Rome, Mexico City is one of the great cities of the world. It is layer upon layer of different cultures. There are the majestic and inspiring layers of the Teotihuacan and Toltec peoples of 2800 and 1000 years ago respectively; the amazing ruins of Tenochtitlan of the Mexica (pronounced Meh-shi-ka) or…
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Meet 7 Orthodox Comics Who Are Making Comedy Kosher Again
Comedy isn’t kosher. Jewish law forbids Jews from voicing mockery, criticism and just plain negativity —precisely those elements that are part of almost all comic routines. But that’s just for starters. Ultra-Orthodox comics face a range of rules: no foul language, double entendres, or risqué allusions. If they’re performing for seriously Orthodox audiences, all comments…
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