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
The Exhilarating Passions of Marc Chagall
“Chagall-Malevich” is an exhilarating paean to the uplifting power of art. Part docu-drama, part fantasy, the film is largely based on the life of Marc Chagall, widely considered the greatest Jewish artist of the 20th Century. Born Moishe Shagal into a Hasidic community in the Pale of the Settlement, Chagall found and pursued his passion…
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Why I Don’t Erase My Voicemail Anymore
‘Happy Anniversary to you….” My grandmother Rose’s Brooklyn-tinged singing voice is just slightly off-key. Even though she passed away four years ago, she still sings for our anniversary each year — because I saved the voicemail of the last time she sang it. When she was still alive, I hardly bothered to listen to her…
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That time I painted Saul Bellow
There is that moment, when you’ve said or done something that possibly you will regret, but can’t be certain. Such were the seconds which followed the thin metallic thump of my envelope addressed to Saul Bellow as it briefly slid and fell to the bottom of my neighborhood mailbox. Years of musing about this letter…
The Latest
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Music Violinist Completes Father’s Piece Cut Short by Nazis
In Raanana, Israel, Eugene Drucker’s brown eyes welled with tears as he finished a rendition of Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77, which his father began 80 years prior in Germany, only to be cut short by anti-Semitic Nazi policy. Accompanied by the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, the 63-year-old, says his father, Ernest Drucker,…
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Books 8 Things You Didn’t Know About Judd Apatow, Book Lover
When one thinks of Judd Apatow, books aren’t the first thing that come to mind. Bro-medies? Sure. Seth Rogen? Definitely. Weed? Duh. But books? And yet, the man behind “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up” apparently owns a lot of books. As he recently told : “I have actually convinced myself that buying books is the…
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Books Israel Doesn’t Have a Monopoly on Great Hebrew Literature
The Sapir Prize for Hebrew Literature is one of Israel’s most important literary awards, and the most significant financially. Recently, the managing board of the prize decided to change its guidelines and enable only candidates who are residents of Israel to submit their work. This new rule caused an interesting and important debate, both in…
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Film & TV Did Hollywood Producers Steal Her Prayer?
Trisha Arlin says she isn’t willing to “turn the other cheek” after being wronged by two of Hollywood’s most powerful Christian producers, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett. They have not apologized or given the rabbinical student credit or compensation after they allegedly used a prayer Arlin wrote, without permission, in the current NBC miniseries “A.D.:…
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Art Why Jewish Artists Were At the Forefront of Social Awareness
Social Concern and Left Politics in Jewish American Art: 1880-1940 by Matthew Baigell Syracuse University Press, 280 pages, $39.95 This ambitious, meticulous cultural history examines how and why Jewish artists and art critics cared about social upheavals in American life. Focusing on the years of abundant immigration of European Jews to the USA until the…
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New York City’s Homicide Bureau Investigating City’s Jewish Underworld
1915 • 100 Years Ago New York City’s homicide bureau is currently investigating an interesting case that, if it goes to trial, will expose some information about the city’s Jewish underworld. The body of Morris Rubenstein, or “Fat Moyshe,” as he was known on the street, was found in the building at 185 Allen Street,…
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Film & TV Which Jews Should You Watch at the Tony Awards?
The story, as it goes, is that tonight’s Tony awards will be all about the Brits, and this past season’s so-called British Invasion. And not a very Jewish one. The favorite for best play is the London National Theatre import, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.” And then there are the likes…
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Duddy Kravitz Returns to the Stage, and to Montreal
Duddy Kravitz is back. Mordecai Richler’s iconic Montreal shvitzer will return to life this month in a hometown musical with all-star bona fides: Score by showbiz giant Alan Menken, book by dramatist/author David Spencer, and theater mainstay Austin Pendleton in the director’s chair. But “The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” which premiered June 7 at Montreal’s…
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