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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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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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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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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Getting Out of Gaza Was the Easy Part
I have never seen strangeness like this. In a quiet, upscale neighborhood of Jerusalem, my husband, Judah, and I were at an Israeli friend’s exhibit. Michal is a fashion designer. She is from a town in the north of Israel, the type of town with large suburban houses carved into hillsides blooming with fruit trees….
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Film & TV New Web Series Delves Deep Into Tel Aviv’s Hookup Scene
One might assume that a web series about internet hookups in Tel Aviv — the Middle East’s party capital — would be gratuitously sexual. But “Confess TLV” is more equivocal than erotic. Based on true stories of people who met online for sex, the eight-part series focuses on the emotional aspect of encounters that are…
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America’s Orchestras Are At War — Could More Jewish Musicians Help?
In September, when a last-minute negotiation effort failed, the Philadelphia Orchestra went on strike after an audience had already gathered for its seasonal opening-night gala. Hackles were raised. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported: “‘Shame on you!’ shouted a couple of philanthropists as players walked through the Kimmel Center lobby and out onto a Broad Street picket…
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Why Zadie Smith Thinks Philip Roth, and Alexander Portnoy, Changed The World
Who is Philip Roth? Most of us agree on the known particulars: he’s a novelist (obviously), a Jew, a Newark native. Depending on who you ask, he is also a pervert, a misogynist, a narcissist, a chauvinist, and/or a self-hating Jew. (I got that list from quickly Googling “most frequent criticisms of Philip Roth;” I…
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Farewell to Hirohito’s Brother — Japan’s Most Jewish Prince
Takahito, Prince Mikasa, who died on October 27 at age 100, was doubtless the member of Japan’s Imperial family with the most Yiddishkeit. He was the youngest brother of Emperor Hirohito and uncle of Akihito, the reigning Emperor of Japan. Prince Mikasa was, as Ben-Ami Shillony’s “The Jews and the Japanese” explains, a prominent scholar…
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‘Falsettos’ Isn’t As Gay As It Once Was — But It’s Still Just as Jewish
Its very first word, shouted by men dressed as Biblical Hebrews and bathed in a quick flash of light, is “oy.” Its first song is titled “Four Jews in a Room Bitching.” And it ends with a bar mitzvah. “Falsettos,” a groundbreaking gay musical that opened in a beautiful, emotional revival at the Walter Kerr…
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For Halloween, 5 Spooky Tales of Haunted Synagogues
Look there — might that be a poltergeist up on the bimah? Or a goblin dangling from the ceiling of the beit ha-knesset? In the spirit of the season, here are five tales of synagogues that may or may not be haunted. Don’t say you weren’t warned. The Ari Synagogue Following earthquakes, The Ari Synagogue in Safed,…
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