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
Nazi Museum Documents Munich’s Ignominious Past — and Puts Hitler in His Place
What would Adolf Hitler say today if he walked by Munich’s recently opened Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism? I posed this question to the German novelist Timur Vermes when we visited the city’s newest and most overdue museum together. Vermes was the perfect person to ask, as he is the author of…
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Harper Lee’s Jewish Lessons
Harper Lee passed away on February 19, at the age of 89. Alexandra Levine remembers the author’s Jewish lessons. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was published in 1960, and this week, 55 years later, the sequel comes out: “Go Set a Watchman.” The title is a biblical reference to Isaiah 21:6 — “For thus hath the…
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Leo Frank Stabbed in Georgia Prison
100 Years Ago Leo Frank, who just began to serve a life sentence in the large prison in Millersville, Georgia, for the murder of Mary Phagan, a girl who worked in the pencil factory he managed, is in critical condition after another inmate tried to slash his throat. In the middle of the night, two-time…
The Latest
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Film & TV Your Guide to This Year’s Jerusalem Film Festival
Founded in 1984, the Jerusalem Film Festival is a baby compared to its European counterparts Venice (1932), Cannes (1946), and Berlin (1951). Israel’s second-oldest film festival after Haifa (founded a year earlier) and the fourth oldest in the Middle East after Cairo (1976) and Damascus (1979), the JFF has become increasingly robust, exciting and ambitious…
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Dating at 62: A Cautionary Tale
“A tall man with a college education and a full head of hair.” When my friend, an over-60 single woman, decided she was ready to start dating, those were the only three requirements she had for her new man. The guy didn’t need to be attractive or wealthy, just a nice guy with these minimal…
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Film & TV An Exclusive Look at Aviva Kempner’s New Documentary Rosenwald
Aviva Kempner, director of the documentaries “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” and “Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg,” will be releasing her latest film “Rosenwald” on August 14th. The film profiles legendary Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald — onetime president of Sears and a civil rights pioneer — who went on to donate a reported $62 million to charity. The…
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Music The Amy Winehouse We Never Knew
“It’s Amy, your favorite Jewish girl!” Amy Winehouse exclaimed after the beep — she was leaving a voicemail for her friend and former manager, Nick Shymansky. I didn’t even know Amy Winehouse was Jewish. There are lots of things I didn’t know about the late jazz-pop singer. Until I saw “Amy,” the new documentary about…
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Film & TV Jesse, Earl, the Dying Girl and Hebrew School
Jesse Andrews is having another moment. Three years ago, the 32-year-old’s debut novel “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” hit bookstores, topped the New York Times best seller list and proved that a story of friendship between high school senior Greg and his cancer-stricken friend Rachel, could deliver pure comedy and gentle poignancy, without…
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The Holocaust Survivor Who Became an Unlikely Korean War Hero
Single Handed: The Inspiring True Story of Tibor “Teddy” Rubin” Holocaust Survivor, Korean War Hero, and Medal of Honor Recipient By Daniel M. Cohen Penguin/Berkley Books, 448 Pages, $27.95 On May 5, 1945, when General George Patton’s 11th Armored Division liberates the Mauthausen concentration camp in Upper Austria, the American soldiers find the bodies of…
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Film & TV How a Violin Forged Tie Between a Holocaust Survivor and a Girl From the Bronx
Joseph Feingold first laid eyes on the violin at a flea market outside of Frankfurt. The year was 1947, and the 23-year-old Holocaust survivor, who was living in a displaced persons camp, traded a carton of American cigarettes for the instrument. As the young man picked up the bow for the first time since his…
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Jerry Weintraub, ‘Old School’ Hollywood Producer, Dies at 77
Jerry Weintraub, the colorful and controversial producer whose films included “Nashville,” “Diner,” “The Karate Kid” and the trio of “Ocean’s Eleven” films, died Monday of cardiac arrest in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 77. He had been in poor health recently. When he received Variety’s Creative Leadership Award in 2013, Weintraub told Variety that he…
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News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
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Opinion I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel
In Case You Missed It
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Antisemitism Decoded How Trump is banning DEI at universities — except for Jews
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Fast Forward Trump fired a commissioner over bad jobs numbers. Nixon targeted a ‘Jewish cabal’ at the same agency
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Looking Forward That time my violin teacher tried to convert me to Christianity
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Fast Forward UK’s largest Jewish group calls Israeli aid to Gaza ‘long overdue,’ months after disciplining members for criticizing Israel
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