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 Glaciers Are the Most Jewish Geological Formation — and Other Lessons From Alaska
The glaciers in Alaska are a natural wonder to behold. I ‘ve been spending some days around them (via boats) and over them (via float planes). They remind me, funnily enough, of the Bible and its story of what the world looked like before God populated the earth with some Jews, some anti-Semites and everyone…
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An Unexpected Yom Kippur in Bangkok
I was the only American in the room and definitely the most clueless. Standing at the back of the makeshift shul for Yom Kippur services in Chabad of Bangkok, I attempted to follow along in my Hebrew siddur pamphlet, observing other people in the room and trying to peep through the mechitza just to know…
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How the Pontiff Welcomes in Yontef
Shalom, good yontef, good yontef, good yontef, namaste, y’all. I am the pope, the literal representative of the Lord on Earth. Please be seated. Put away your selfie sticks. This is serious business. Before I begin my sermon, I just have to ask: How do you rabbis do it? If I had to offer biblical…
The Latest
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How Surviving Solitary Confinement Changed My Life
From the look on her face, and the way she entered my room, I knew my mother was about to say something serious. Leaning against her walker, she watched me move closer to her. “It will be harder for you to be in prison than it was for me to be in a concentration camp,”…
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The Story My Bubbe Told Us
I can’t remember the exact moment when I realized there was a lot more to my Bubbe’s story than a grandmother who baked amazing chocolate chip cookies and spent her winters in Florida. Her past wasn’t really discussed openly, and it wasn’t until after my bat mitzvah that I started to really understand what she…
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The Most Jewish Crocodile in New York
On the sidewalks leading up to the National Museum of American Jewish History, located mere steps from Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell, green reptilian footprints lead the way to the exhibit “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile and Friends: The Art of Bernard Waber.” Ilana Blumenthal, the museum’s marketing and communications manager, conceived of the footprints to promote the show,…
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Theo Bikel, Prophet of His People
In Deuteronomy 18:18 Moses says that God has told him, “I will raise up a prophet from among your own people. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to the people all that I command him.” Theo Bikel, who passed away July 21, was, I believe, such a prophet in…
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Kinky Friedman Rides Again
Kinky Friedman’s got big boots. Size 10.5. Black cowboy jobs with Texas dust in the cracks. And points sharp enough to catch the hook of a song, of which Friedman’s got plenty: “They Ain’t Makin’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore,” “Rapid City, South Dakota,” “Ride ’Em Jewboy.” In October he’ll have a few more to add…
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Film & TV Jewish King of Latin TV Says ‘Adios’ After 53 Years
(JTA) — On Saturday, the Spanish language television network Univision will host the final broadcast of “Sábado Gigante.” With 53 years on TV, the world’s longest-running variety show is an eclectic, strange mashup of a game show, a talk show and live entertainment. There are singing competitions — the poor-performing contestants are eliminated by a…
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How Marlon Brando Became Godfather to the Jews
Shortly into “Listen to Me Marlon,” a fascinating new documentary about Marlon Brando spoken almost completely in his own voice, comes a startling glimpse of Brando’s life-changing plunge into the Jewish experience of the 20th century. Drawn largely from diaristic audio tapes he made, combined with a wide range of cinematic imagery, the ruminations start…
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Why I Donated My Eggs at 21
‘When you turn 21, then you can do what you want,” my mother said over and over again. While most of my friends were counting down for tattoos and piercings that would “make the neighbors talk,” I was waiting for the day I would be able to help a couple have a baby. I still…
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