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
-
‘Demon’ Is a Holocaust Ghost Story That Bravely Confronts Poland’s Past
A ghost story about the Holocaust seems like an atrociously bad idea. Besides insulting the memory of the victims and cheapening the crime, the metaphorical ghosts of the Holocaust are real enough without making literal specters of them. Only a profit-seeking schlock peddler would try to mix paranormal hoo-ha with pseudo-historical genocide fiction. Yet that’s…
-
Film & TV Leonard Nimoy Wasn’t Just Spock — He Was My Dad
September 8th, 2016 is Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary. Read Adam Nimoy’s ode to his father, Leonard Nimoy — the original Spock — originally published in the Forward in June, 2015. Leonard Nimoy passed away on February 27th, 2015. Last year, I approached my father, Leonard Nimoy, about collaborating on a documentary about Mr. Spock, his…
-
Disco Is Alive and Well in Tel Aviv
It’s 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night in Tel Aviv and young Israelis, wearing horn-rimmed glasses, vintage floral print dresses, and man buns are sipping drinks in a dimly lit bar. A Lebanese track from the 1979 “Belly Dance Disco” album by Ihasan al-Munzer plays in the background. The music with its thick unmistakably Lebanese…
The Latest
-
Film & TV Why The New ‘Ben Hur’ Is the Least Successful Adaptation Of All
“Ben-Hur: A Tale Of The Christ” was the best-selling American novel of the nineteenth century, beating out “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” There were a million copies printed of the 1913 edition, an American record at the time. It would stay on the top of the charts (just under the Christian bible) until “Gone With The Wind”…
-
How Do You Teach the Holocaust to Kids Who’ve Never Heard of It?
By the time my third-grade teacher assigned Lois Lowry’s “Number the Stars,” I already had a basic understanding of the Holocaust. We sat in a circle to discuss the text as part of a lunchtime book club. My fellow classmates expressed awe at how scary it must have been for the main character to hide…
-
How Facebook Live Helps Michael Hirsch Remember the Triangle Fire
Watching a visit to a cemetery streamed on Facebook Live might not sound like the most engrossing of afternoons, but in the hands of photographer, journalist, and historical researcher Michael Hirsch, it’s a rarely interesting occupation. On a recent late-August Tuesday, Hirsch wasn’t visiting just any cemetery. He was making a pilgrimage to see some…
-
The Lurking Dead
I was 9 when my grandfather died. For a year or two after his funeral, bruises would appear on my body. Large or small, yellow or blue, round or misshapen. My mother was concerned. She kept asking me if everything was okay at school. I said yes, everything was okay; I just bumped into things…
-
The Surprising Jewish Story Behind Indie Rock Legend Brix Smith-Start
She’s lived so many lives that it’s hard to believe Brix Smith-Start is only 53. A teen rebel who idolized British punk, she lived a dream by marrying British musician Mark E. Smith, founder of the hugely influential band The Fall and became his band’s unlikely lead guitarist at 20. After the couple’s disastrous split,…
-
Why We Need To Remember Gene Wilder in ‘The Frisco Kid’
The late Gene Wilder is best known for his performance as the title character in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” a dandy in his royal purple suit, and orange felt top hat. The retrospectives published this week in print, radio and online recall his roles in movies such as “Blazing Saddles”, “Young Frankenstein”, “Everything…
-
Does Jonathan Safran Foer Matter?
Six years ago, when I was 17 years old and a month into college at Washington University in St. Louis, I met Jonathan Safran Foer. I didn’t know he was speaking on my campus until the day of the event, and I reacted with a kind of seismic glee specific to small events of seemingly…
-
Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Ambitious and Incredibly Long New Novel
Here I Am By Jonathan Safran Foer Farrar, Straus and Giroux $28, 592 pages By Yevgeniya Traps ‘Here I Am,” the title of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new novel, is an allusion to the story of Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his son: Called upon by God, Abraham responds “Here I am,” an apparent acquiescence to the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
- 3
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 4
Fast Forward Hanukkah shooting leaves at least 15 dead at Australia’s most popular beach
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Richmond mayor facing resignation calls over posts calling Sydney massacre ‘false flag’
-
Fast Forward Mamdani appointee resigns over past antisemitic online posts about ‘money hungry Jews’
-
Fast Forward Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic with a Jewish streamer?
-
Culture A Jewish-Muslim art show builds ‘little bridges’ of coexistence
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
