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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Art
Where the Characters Are Orthodox and the Themes Are Universal
The first set The Actors Company Theatre uses in its production of Motti Lerner’s “Hard Love” is different from those usually seen in Manhattan’s Beckett Theatre. At first glance, it’s an ordinary kitchen, but a closer look reveals some intriguing features. A shelf mounted above a cabinet holds a tzedakah charity box bracketed by two…
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Can Matzo Be the New Bagel?
At a press event at Streit’s Matzos in early March, Jill Zarin, dressed in sky-high black patent leather pumps and a crisp white sweater lined with navy blue stripes, and sporting an emerald snakeskin watch, displayed no qualms about interrupting the company’s three executive vice presidents, who are cousins, so she can answer questions from…
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Jews Go Back to the Land (Again)
Eco-Judaism is in full swing these days. You don’t have to go too far afield to find a lively array of Jewish institutions that tout the virtues of both farm-fresh produce and the farming life. From marking Sukkot by heading to the nearest orchard for an afternoon of apple-picking to mounting art exhibitions on shmita,…
The Latest
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No Jew Is an Island — Especially in the Faroes
I have usually sought God through extreme experiences, on mountain peaks and in exotic lands. As a Jew, and as a congregational rabbi for much of my professional life, that can pose problems. Judaism is a religious tradition where peoplehood is a powerful feature and a primary focus. Consequently, there is a basic disconnect between…
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To Be Young, Poetic and Black — and Jewish
Aaron Samuels started getting hype as a poet as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis. A co-founder of the school’s popular slam poetry team, WUSLAM, his compelling performances and the depth of his investigation into what it meant to be black and Jewish made him stand out. He’s continued to make his name…
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Yiddish Breathes New Life Into ‘Death of a Salesman’
Is “Death of a Salesman” a Jewish play? Is Willy Loman, its main character, Jewish? The question has been asked almost since “Salesman” was first produced, in 1949. Loman’s precarious life was the fate of many Jews in the 20th century, and playwright Arthur Miller — whose centenary is being celebrated this month — was…
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Joshua Cohen is Writing a Novel Live Online
Joshua Cohen, the Brooklyn-based writer whose latest, painstakingly-researched novel “Book of Numbers” in some ways echoed the Edward Snowden leaks by revealing the relationship between the Internet and government surveillance, is now writing a novel in real time on the website , named for the title of the book which is based on the Charles…
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Film & TV When Amy Schumer Met Virginia Woolf
Last week, the news came over the transom, hitting writers’ heads like a 3,000-pound sack of envy: Comedian Amy Schumer will be receiving $9 million for a volume of her memoirs. Even more disturbing was the fact that she’d already returned $1 million, an amount that 10 writers combined won’t earn in two lifetimes, to…
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Music The Secret Jewish History of Patti Smith
The first words ever uttered by Patti Smith on a recording were “Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine,” the opening line of “Gloria” on her debut album, “Horses,” released 40 years ago this December. That line pretty much set the tone for what was to come over the next four decades. Much of…
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How Freedom Turned to Propaganda in Soviet Photography
When Alexander Rodchenko took the photograph “Pioneer Playing a Trumpet” in 1930, the Soviet Union had been, albeit briefly, a haven for photographers and filmmakers. The primary reason these art forms flourished there, according to Susan Tumarkin Goodman, co-curator of the Jewish Museum’s new exhibit “The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film,”…
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Books Talking Montreal, Hasids and Bagels With ‘Mystics of Mile End’ Author Sigal Samuel
Sigal Samuel and I grew up in the same city, attended the same college and ended up in the same office. Before that momentous event, our paths had never crossed. (Full disclosure: since then, we have become attached at the hip — or the byline.) I grew up in a secular, if proudly Sephardic, environment….
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