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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The Spy Who Came In From Hamas
With the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories constantly shifting between open conflict and frail cease-fires this summer, the release of the documentary “The Green Prince” could not be timelier. Directed by Nadav Schirman, the film, which opens on Friday in New York, tells the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas…
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Irgun Fighter Remembers the Altalena
Malca Fein is a fit, sharp, outspoken, perfectly groomed octogenarian with a just a hint of an accent. But get her talking about the past and the fiery Zionist freedom fighter burns through her grandmotherly facade. At the age of 16, Malca, who was born in Tel Aviv in 1925 and now makes her home…
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7 Facts About Jewish Tennessee
1. Tennessee’s first known Jewish settler, David Hart, arrived in Memphis in 1838. 2. In 1896, 19-year-old Adolph Ochs, the son of German Jewish refugees, bought a controlling share of the failing Chattanooga Times. After making the paper profitable, he went on to buy The New York Times in 1896. During his time as publisher,…
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How Elvis Presley Missed His True Calling — As a Cantor
In the summer of 1954, Elvis Presley released his first single. He had one problem: He couldn’t play it. The aspiring 19-year-old singer was living with his parents at 462 Alabama Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. With rent at $50 a month, his family was too poor to afford a record player. So, as he often…
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The Wonder Women of Video
Nowhere, perhaps, is the distinction between interior and outside space more pronounced than in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” Prince Prospero and his privileged colleagues hole up in “the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys,” which is decorated with the prince’s “eccentric yet august taste.” The outside world, plagued…
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Rumors Arise of Jewish Emancipation by Russian Czar
1914 • 100 years ago Jewish Emancipation by the Czar? A number of interested parties that are participants in the current European war are courting the Jews of the Pale of Settlement. Correspondents in St. Petersburg have reported that the Russian government is not averse to giving its Jews full civil rights and equality, just…
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Slouching Through Catalonia, One Jewish Site at a Time
This summer, my wife and I spent our vacation in Barcelona, Spain, because a friend had offered us free lodging in the apartment her family had held onto after they fled Franco’s Spain. I’d longed to visit the city for years, mostly because of the romantic notions of the Catalan people’s anarchistic spirit that had…
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Six Surprising Facts About Montana Jews
1. Henry Jacobs, the first mayor of Butte, Montana, was Jewish. 2. When Helena’s Temple Emanuel was built in 1891, it was the only synagogue between Portland, Ore. and Chicago. 3. Until 2013, Helena’s police force had a dog name Miky (pronounced “Mickey”) who was trained by the Israel Defense Forces and would only respond…
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Books Leonard Maltin’s Last Movie Guide
The word is out. Leonard Maltin’s annual movie guide has fallen into what, in Hollywood speak, would be called “developmental hell.” First published in 1969 and annually since 1986, the new 2015 edition is its last. Like newspapers and other print media, it has fallen victim to the Internet, where much of the information is…
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Legendary South African Jewish Athlete Dies at 103
South African Jewish cricketer Norman Gordon, who has died today at the age of 103, epitomized speed and durability in sport. Gordon was the first Test cricketer to become a centenarian (duration is a key to Test cricket itself, the longest form of the sport, which may last up to five days.). In Gordon’s day…
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How Kosher Food Came To Montana
When Rabbi Chaim Bruk and his wife Chavie Bruk arrived in Montana in 2007, they found a culinary desert, kosher food-wise. “Other than the generic food on the supermarket shelves, it was really difficult to find any kosher food — no frozen items, not a lot of dry goods,” the rabbi said. “It was a…
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