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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At Launch of Forward Anthology, A Celebration of Yiddish Fiction
Should you have happened, the evening of December 5th, to be taking a stroll on Manhattan’s 16th street, allowing yourself a romantic sigh over the Christmas trees winking in the windows, you would likely not have guessed you were especially close to a gathering of giddy Yiddishists. And yet you were; the Center for Jewish…
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Was Polish Culture Institute Director Fired For Too Much ‘Jewish-Themed Content?’
According to an article published yesterday on Artnet, Katarzyna Wielga-Skolimowska, the director and cultural manager of the Polish Culture Institute in Berlin, was fired from her post for “too much Jewish-themed content,” among other things. Wielga-Skolimowska’s contract was reportedly set to expire in the summer of 2017, but the dismissal order, given by Poland’s ultra…
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Sweepstakes: Have You Got a Story for Us?
If you have a story for us, then we’ve got a book for you! Tell us the first sentence of your Jewish story, and you could be featured in a future article on forward.com! Five random entries will also win a free copy of “Have I Got a Story for You,” an anthology of the…
The Latest
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6 Things About ‘Babylon Line’ Playwright Richard Greenberg
Tony Award-winning author Richard Greenberg’s new play “The Babylon Line” opened at Lincoln Center on December 5. He recently sat down with the Forward for a lengthy, freewheeling interview. Here are 6 things we talked about. On Aroldis Chapman First of all, he shot up his garage before the Yankees acquired him. So, when we…
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Sure, Bob Dylan Is a Great Artist — but Have You Looked at His Art?
Since Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature in October, his name has not been out of the news. So the timing for the singer-songwriter’s major exhibition of new works at the Halcyon Gallery in Mayfair, central London, could not be better. But, says the gallery’s marketing manager, Ada Crawshay Jones, this is just…
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How We Should Remember Kirk Douglas on His 100th Birthday
Kirk Douglas, who turns 100 on December 9, is both a movie legend and a Hollywood anomaly: a star divided. Most stars lodge in our collective consciousness. Douglas, while a first-magnitude star, was never quite an indelible one, save maybe for the dimple in his chin, never one who seemed to capture the zeitgeist the…
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Richard Greenberg Is Back on His Home Turf — Suburbia
The three women who shriek with excitement when they find themselves in the same classroom are thrilled to see each other — they’re Sisterhood ladies. It’s Levittown, Long Island, in 1967, and they’ve signed up for an adult-ed class in creative writing. It’s clear they don’t really want to be there, both because they tell…
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Go Watch This Documentary About A Holocaust Survivor’s Violin
“Joe’s Violin” (2016), opens with a shot of the titular Joseph Feingold, tuning his violin. He hasn’t played in “8-10 years,” and his fingers look unsteady as he holds the instrument’s neck. After tinkering for a bit, Joseph puts down the violin and asks “how long can you live with memories?” Joseph, one of the…
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Writers of ‘Vagina Monologues,’ ‘The Vibrator Play’ to Feature in D.C. Theater’s American History Cycle
Last week, Washington D.C.’s Arena Stage announced a significant new initiative: over the next decade, the theater will commission 25 plays by 25 writers, one for each decade of American history. Playwrights who have already signed on to the project include Eve Ensler, Sarah Ruhl and Aaron Posner. Fittingly, given that the theater is located…
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Why We Shouldn’t Criticize Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize Snubs
Bob Dylan’s entire 54-year career can be read as one controversy following another. He started out as a traditional folkie who then betrayed tradition by writing his own songs. Then he betrayed the movement when he forsook topical and political protest songs for more personal, poetic musings. Then of course he shocked everyone by abandoning…
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Bob Dylan Will Have Acceptance Speech at Nobel Prize Ceremony — He Just Won’t Be Reading it
In the latest installment of the Bob Dylan Nobel Prize Saga — which, we would note, gets less interesting as it gets more unnecessarily complex — the Nobel Foundation has announced Dylan is sending a speech to be read at the December 10 presentation of the Nobel Prizes in Stockholm. Like all Nobel laureates, Dylan…
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