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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For Charles Aaron, It’s All About the Bikes
Charles Aaron grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, the same Minneapolis suburb that spawned Thomas Friedman, Al Franken and the Coen brothers, only Aaron had different ambitions: He wanted to run a professional bike team. His father gave him a Schwinn 10-speed for his bar mitzvah, which Aaron began racing, at first holding his…
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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…
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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…
The Latest
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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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Old Traditions in New L.A.
and her husband, David Nahai, have been living together in Los Angeles for 33 years — 24 of them in their current home in Benedict Hills. Both are of Persian descent. Gina, 54, is a writer and professor of creative writing at the University of Southern California. David is an attorney and environmental activist. Their…
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