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
-
Zadie Smith’s Lecture, Nora Ephron’s Revolt and 4 Other Things To Watch, Read, And Do This Weekend
Last weekend Rachel Bloom made us laugh, cry and sing with the season premier of “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Ewan McGregor gave us a film adaptation of “American Pastoral” that the Forward’s Adam Langer found disappointing (sorry), and we swooned, again, for Leonard Cohen. What’s grabbing our attention this week? Holocaust denial, more Philip Roth, and the…
-
Copy Boy, Get Rewrite For Broadway’s New ‘Front Page!’
An upwardly mobile reporter is about to marry a nice girl and move into advertising, to make more money. A tough-talking cop rants about nonexistent subversives, to boost his own profile. The mayor is more interested in mollifying key constituencies than in fighting for justice. And the powerless cleaning lady keeps getting manhandled. “The Front…
-
Was Francois Mitterrand an Anti-Semite? It’s Complicated.
Was François Mitterrand, who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, anti-Semitic? October 26 marks Mitterrand’s centenary but already earlier this year on a Gallic TV chat show, Prime Minister Manuel Valls reopened the debate by citing Mitterrand as an example of anti-Semitism in France. Authoritative biographies by historian Michel Winock and journalist…
The Latest
-
Why This Literary Translator Will Do Yiddish — but Not Haruki Murakami
I once heard a woman in cat’s-eye glasses say that she likes to look at a large map on her wall, which has pins affixed to the countries from which she has published literature in translation. But what haunts her, she passionately explained, are the empty spaces on the map — the countries with no…
-
Books You’ll Never Guess Which Israeli Authors President Obama Loves
We’ve always known President Obama is, at heart, a lovable nerd. Soon we’ll get even more proof; the president guest-edited the November edition of WIRED, which the magazine’s editor in chief Scott Dadich recently wrote will be focused on frontiers, including “the final one, because it turns out President Obama is a big Star Trek…
-
Takin’ The A Train to the Forgotten ‘Jews of Harlem’
THE JEWS OF HARLEM: THE RISE, DECLINE, AND REVIVAL OF A JEWISH COMMUNITY By Jeffrey S. Gurock NYU Press, 320 pages, $35 There was once an area in Manhattan where few Jews — and almost no whites — settled, that area beneath Morningside Heights, past Central Park, above 96th Street on the East Side: Harlem….
-
The Secret Jewish History of Shirley Jackson and ‘The Lottery’
The centenary of Shirley Jackson (1916 –1965), noted for her horror stories such as “The Lottery” (1948), and the novel “The Haunting of Hill House” (1959), will be celebrated in December. New publications and reprints commemorate this writer who has chilled millions. Claimed by Stephen King, among others, as a major influence, Jackson was married…
-
Music Songwriter Carole Bayer Sager Feels a Connection to God
There’s a story in Carole Bayer Sager’s just-published memoir, “They’re Playing Our Song,” about the day she met Marvin Hamlisch. They were supposed to discuss writing the score for a TV pilot. The meeting was short; Hamlisch told her he had to leave for London to start scoring the new James Bond movie, “The Spy…
-
Film & TV Have Mediocre Movies Like ‘American Pastoral’ Hurt Philip Roth’s Chances For a Nobel Prize?
If there’s one moment that bugs Philip Roth more than any in “American Pastoral,” the new film adaptation of his explosive Pulitzer Prize-winning 1997 novel, I’m guessing it’s this one: During an overwrought scene of domestic conflict between Newark’s one-time golden boy Swede Levov and his bilious, radical teenage daughter Merry, the camera lingers on…
-
Where Kabbalah and Mad Magazine Meet, Mark Podwal Is the Product
Dr. Mark Podwal is a Jewish artist. That is to say his art is his homeland and Judaism is the language of his country. Like body and soul they are intertwined. For many years he has been my friend and my family has used the Haggadah he illustrated with Elie Wiesel in 1993. He began…
-
Books Catskills Bookstore Sparks Protests by Comparing Donald Trump to Nazis
— An upstate New York bookstore display containing the name “Trump” superimposed over a Nazi flag has spurred outrage, including from the Anti-Defamation League and supporters of the Republican nominee. Some 20 protesters demonstrated Wednesday outside the Inquiring Minds Bookstore and Cafe in the village of Saugerties against the banner, which also read “Make America Hate Again.” Some demonstrators…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
- 3
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 4
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
-
Fast Forward In Reykjavik, Hanukkah offers a chance for Iceland’s tiny, isolated Jewish community to come together
-
Opinion When my children decorate for Hanukkah, I don’t just see pride. I see pluralism in action.
-
Fast Forward ‘The most Australian name’: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation’s grief
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
