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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How 12 Jews, a Bear and a Robot Took Shtetlsphere by Storm
2014 saw the rise of the first Jewish ‘Bachelorette,’ Jewish chatbots and our own version of a Jewish royal baby (thanks Chelsea Clinton!) We lost Joan Rivers just as Monica Lewinsky made her comeback. A 13-year-old comedian made Howard Stern blush. And let’s not forget an Israeli miracle: Mango the Bear’s “meteoric recovery.” We’ve got…
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Michael Twitty, Black Jewish Foodie, Talks ‘Culinary Justice’
(Haaretz) — “Only as a Jew [wearing a skullcap], white women offer me rides wherever I am going. I’m like, ‘White woman, you know I am black, right?’” With that sarcasm-laced remark, Michael Twitty won the hearts of the dozens of students who had gathered on a cold Thursday afternoon in November to hear the historian…
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6 Things About Jewish North Dakota
1) 400 Jews live in North Dakota, fewer than any other state except South Dakota. 2) Born in Lithuania in 1860, Rabbi Benjamin Papermaster served as Rabbi of the Grand Forks, North Dakota Jewish community from 1891 until 1934. 3) North Dakota has two active synagogues — Temple Beth El in Fargo and Bnai Israel…
The Latest
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Books Few Bright Spots for Jewish Books in 2014
It’s been a brutal year. As always, the world is in chaos. We hear about it every time we read the news, or turn on the television, or check our Facebook feeds. ISIS, Gaza, Ukraine, Ferguson, campus rape. Russian oligarchs have taken over New York City. Corporate citizens have taken over the government. Though the…
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Theater J’s Ari Roth Knew Days Were Numbered After Feuds Over Israel
The break-up was on the horizon, but playwright Ari Roth didn’t expect it to happen quite so suddenly. On Thursday, Roth, the long-time artistic director of Theater J in Washington DC was fired — or he resigned, depending on who you ask. A press release sent to the Forward on Thursday evening by Theater J,…
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When the Legendary Theodore Bikel Turned 90
Broadway star, Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning film and TV actor, folk singer, recording artist, radio host, raconteur, advocate for the arts, international human rights activist — Theodore Bikel has been all of these things and more over the course of his long and intensely rich career, and he’s still going relatively strong at the age…
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‘The Interview’ Shows That Comedy Can Still Be Dangerous
Editor’s Note: On December 17, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that it was cancelling the December 25 theatrical release of “The Interview,” following threats by a group called “Guardians of Peace.” Fortunately, we had the opportunity to see the movie at a press screening held before the cancellation. What follows is our previously scheduled review of…
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How Sy Berger Invented the Baseball Card
Reggie Jackson wasn’t happy with the stereo. The All-Star slugger, then a few years into his career with the Oakland A’s, had earned a new hi-fi system with the royalties he’d saved from his agreement with Topps, the trading card company. As Topps executive Sy Berger told the authors of the 1973 classic “The Great…
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The Great Food Fight of 1883
One of the most appealing things about my line of work is that, now and again, I have the opportunity to revisit something I’ve read, written or talked about. The other day, an invitation from the department of Judaic studies at the University of Cincinnati to deliver a public lecture about food provided me with…
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Music Revisions to Spain’s Sephardic Law Make It ‘Meaningless’
Spanish-speaking Israelis complained that Spain’s legislation for the naturalization of Sephardic Jews has been rendered symbolic because of changes to a bill that would formalize the procedure. The changes to the government-supported draft bill were introduced last month during deliberations at a congressional committee ahead of a vote by the Spanish Congress scheduled for Dec….
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Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens
● Beautiful Yetta’s Hanukkah Kitten By Daniel Pinkwater, illustrated by Jill Pinkwater Feiwel and Friends, 32 pages, $17.99. Spared from the butchers’ knife, Yiddish-speaking Yetta makes her home in Brooklyn, trying to find a new family and do good where she can. A Holocaust survivor? Not exactly. Yetta is big white chicken with long eyelashes…
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