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
-
When a Rabbi Was the Last Thing I Needed
Six years ago, I lost a friend to a drunk driver. I was a 19-year-old counselor at a sleepaway camp near Augusta, Maine, and I felt invincible. I had never experienced anything “bad” beyond some less-than-stellar marks on my college econ exams. Certainly no trauma. I knew nothing about death (beyond the passing of my…
-
Of Genetics and the Sanctity of Human Life
“You, your joys and sorrows, your memories and ambitions, your sense of identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules,” Nobel laureate Francis Crick, who co-discovered DNA’s double strand architecture, wrote in his 1994 book on consciousness, “The Astonishing Hypothesis.”…
-
The Phenomenal Growth of the Jewish Olympics
The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games By Ron Kaplan Skyhorse Publishing, 296 pages, $26.99 In “The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games,” Ron Kaplan offers both a detailed account of the games and a deep exploration of the politics surrounding them. The Maccabiah Games — often called the Jewish Olympics…
The Latest
-
Folksbiene Pays Homage to Jewish Broadway — in English
What’s so Jewish about Broadway? The National Yiddish Theater Folksbiene’s production of “Another Hundred Years” showcases the Jewish influence on Broadway from the beginning of the 20th century until the present day. Last week’s one-time performance gave us a preview of the extended 90-minute version of the show in the works for the near future….
-
An Encounter in Israel Leads to a Wedding at Ramah
Alex Kress and his fiance, Michal Kogen, both 26, met during their study abroad program in Israel while they were still in college. They are now weeks away from their September 6 wedding at Camp Ramah in Ojai California, the summer camp Kogen grew up attending. Kress, a native of Philadelphia, is a fourth-year rabbinical…
-
Was Julius Rosenwald Our Greatest Philanthropist?
“To me, Julius Rosenwald is the best antidote to Donald Trump,” says Aviva Kempner, who wrote, produced and directed the documentary “Rosenwald,” which opened in New York on August 14. “You see how pompous rich people can be, but Rosenwald is quite the contrary; he is one of the greatest examples for American Jews of…
-
Film & TV Is Zombie Armageddon a Metaphor for Mideast Conflict?
At the recent Jerusalem International Film Festival, the Israeli horror movie “Jeruzalem” was scheduled to premiere right after “From Caligari to Hitler,” a German documentary based on Siegfried Kracauer’s book of the same name. Kracauer was a Jewish writer and critic who escaped Nazi Germany. In his book, he analyzed Weimar-era German cinema and theorized…
-
Art Inside Sasha Velour’s Talmud of Drag
The Talmud didn’t make Sasha Steinberg a drag queen. But it did help inspire Vym, the “drag culture” glossy he launched in July as Sasha Velour, his alter ego. “What struck me about the Talmud, and so much Jewish philosophy, is that it’s not always one narrative,” Steinberg told the Forward from the Brooklyn apartment…
-
If You Take a 10-Year-Old To See a Shakespeare Play
If you take a 10-year-old to see a Shakespeare play, chances are she’ll want to know how long the show is. You’ll tell her you don’t know for sure, but three hours would be a good guess. Before she rolls her eyes, you’ll remind her that the production of Henrik Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the…
-
A Broadway Family’s Off Broadway Life
Russell Granet (left), 50, is the executive director of Lincoln Center Education. His husband, David Beach (right), 51, is an actor most recently seen on HBO’s “Veep” and on Broadway this year in “Fish in the Dark” and “It’s Only a Play.” Their daughter, Sadie Kate Granet-Beach, currently 6 and 11/12ths, is — according to…
-
Art 100 Years of Art and Chaos at London’s Ben Uri Gallery
One hundred years ago, on July 1, 1915, a Jewish decorative art association called Ben Ouri was founded in the heart of London’s East End. It was led by Lazar Berson, a charismatic Russian Jewish émigré artist whose vision was to create a Jewish arts society that would support Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrant artists and craftsmen,…
Explore
Most Popular
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
-
Looking Forward Stumbling across Jewish history in a vintage store
-
Film & TV Remembering Siskel and Ebert’s great debate: Mel Brooks or Woody Allen?
-
News A Jewish gun club teams up with the NRA, in pursuit of self-defense
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
