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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Why Only Jewish Boys Get To Keep Their Noses
How Come Boys Get To Keep Their Noses? By Tahneer Oksman Columbia University Press, 296 pages, $30 We seem to be living in a golden age of comic female abjection. Not long ago, the ethereal fantasy women that film critic Nathan Rabin famously dubbed “manic pixie dream girls” ruled the airwaves. These magical creatures continue…
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My Father Was the Greatest Champ of All Time
On the night of March 8th 1971, Muhammad Ali fought Joe Frazier for the heavyweight boxing championship at Madison Square Garden in what was billed as the Fight of the Century. My father, who I idealized when I was a boy, was an Ali fan. As an 8 year old at that time, my view…
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‘Tikkun’ Director Avishai Sivan Talks Breaking Taboos and Portraying the Orthodox
On Avishai Sivan’s website, the 39-year-old Israeli filmmaker has also posted almost two decades worth of the many rejection letters he’s received. It’s both a testimony to the extreme difficulty some institutions have had connecting with his provocative oeuvre and an impressive list of the most prestigious foundations and festivals in the world, including Cannes,…
The Latest
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5 (Jewish) Hairdos Bibi Could Have Had for Way Under $1,600
For $1,600, you can become the proud owner of an Apple laptop, a month’s lodging with three roommates and no windows in Manhattan or, if your name happens to be Benjamin Netanyahu, a fairly standard haircut. In light of the recent news about Netanyahu’s extravagant hair expenditures on his trip to New York, we thought…
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My Father’s Funeral
Growing up, there were days when my sister and I felt we were living in a madhouse. When our father was in a good mood, he was funny and kind, intelligent and learned; and the next moment, for no apparent reason, he screamed at us, and remained sullen for hours. We wanted to run away….
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How Jews Made London the Fashion Capital of the World
“Virtually every Jewish tailor was a showman,” reminisces Brian Bilgorri. His father, Harry (Sonny) Bilgorri, was owner of one of the most successful tailoring businesses in London’s East End, a contributor to the fashion revolution scene of the 1960s and one such showman. In Sonny’s obituary, in 2001, The Independent newspaper described Bigorri’s as, “a…
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Why Sephardic ‘Othello’ Is a Dream Come True
Beginning on June 16, the actor David Serero will portray the title role in Shakespeare’s “Othello,” presented by the American Sephardi Federation at the Center for Jewish History. We invited Serero to discuss the challenges of playing Othello in this production, which will feature Jewish Moroccan music. Othello is an actor’s dream role. I first…
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Meet the Man Who Taught Lin-Manuel Miranda All About Hamilton
In the opening song of “Hamilton,” the cast of early Americans that populates the musical repeatedly sings the title character’s name — Alexander Hamilton — their voices tinged with reverence. A similarly fascinated tone tends to emerge when people talk about Lin-Manuel Miranda, the 36-year-old composer, rapper, writer, and actor who created and stars in…
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Books Parenting How-To: Looking Beyond Diapers and Tantrums to Find Spirituality
Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting Danya Ruttenberg Flatiron Books, 320 pages, $25 I’ve read my share of parenting books. There’s a stack by my bedside table that inevitably tips over with my three kids’ rambunctious play nearby. With a 3, 5, and…
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How a Jewish Con Man Tried To Get Herbert Hoover To Think in Yiddish
A few years ago, prompted by a stray comment from a visiting relative from Paris, I did a few Google searches on my great uncle with the unusual name: Freeman Bernstein. But it wasn’t until 2011 — when I was briefly between engagements in my four-decade career as a political columnist — that I took…
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Reading Delmore Schwartz, Our Responsibilities Begin
I came late to Delmore Schwartz. For most of my formative years as a reader, he was just a name, inspiration to my great culture hero Lou Reed, who dedicated “European Son,” on the first Velvet Underground record, to him. It wasn’t that “European Son” was a song I loved — the album has more…
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