Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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That time Yiddishists met extraterrestrials a short while ago in a galaxy not far away
It was a normal summer internship at the Yiddish Book Center ... until the Jedi invaded our turf
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Music Marissa Nadler Isn’t Afraid of the Dark
Boston-based singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler, long a critical darling with a cult following, seems poised to cross over with the haunting “July,” (Sacred Bones) her sixth studio album in ten years. Reviews have been the strongest of her career; UK pop bible NME called “July” “a career high,” and the PopMatters blog dubbed it “one of…
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For Author and PBS Host Simon Schama, ‘Story of the Jews’ Is Personal
There are several moments in Simon Schama’s new five-part documentary series, “The Story of the Jews,” when the British historian’s stiff upper lip begins to wobble. Schama says the series would not have worked if he had not made it personal. “I wanted it to be hot television, not cool television,” Schama said as he…
The Latest
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6 Reasons (Jewish) Mommy Blogs Suck
These days, it’s all the rage to knock mommy blogs, but I disagree. I’m a big fan of online mommies, especially the celebrities — I’m looking at you, Gwyneth, Mayim, Tori — I say, you go girls! Because while my friends are reading your tips on how to decorate the playroom, or “Twelve Things My…
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Putting Persian Back in the Talmud
● The Iranian Talmud: Reading the Bavli in Its Sasanian Context By Shai Secunda University of Pennsylvania Press, 272 pages, $55 Academic study of the Talmud once provoked anger. In “The Promise,” Chaim Potok’s 1969 sequel to “The Chosen,” Orthodox rabbinical student Reuven Malter wants to emend manuscripts and track the text’s historical development. His…
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What If Miley Cyrus Did the Nasty in the Shvitz?
All the talk in my local sauna over the last few months has been about twerking or, in its YIVO-authorized spelling, tverking. One recent Friday morning I reached under the bench for the 1689 vellum edition of the Urban Dictionary that the management stores next to the birch branches to find what it says on…
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Books How Jews Became ‘White’ On Broadway
Even if you’re not a theater nerd, Warren Hoffman’s “The Great White Way” (Rutgers University Press) makes a fascinating read. The book’s subtitle, “Race and the Broadway Musical,” only hints at its breadth, and the depth of Hoffman’s laser-sharp analysis of an all-American art form. Billed as “the first book to reveal the racial politics,…
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‘Hockey Maven’ Stan Fischler Has Love Affair With Sport — and Israel
(JTA) — As the Boston Bruins buzz the Islanders net throughout the opening period of a game at the Nassau Coliseum, Stan Fischler is standing 10 feet behind the Plexiglas to the left of New York goaltender Kevin Poulin. Fischler, a hockey broadcaster for four decades, can feel the rattling boards of forechecking Bruins. There’s…
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Leo Frank Emotionless as Judge Pronounced Death Sentence
1913 •100 years ago Leo Frank Sentenced to Death Brooklyn-born Leo Frank, superintendent of a pencil factory in Atlanta, was sentenced a week ago for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, an employee of the factory. At Frank’s sentencing, the judge asked him if he had anything to say. He responded: “False stories have been…
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Palestinian ‘Arab Spring’ Turns Out To Be SodaStream Well
Experts have long said water would spark the next Middle East flare-up, but no one expected the conflagration to be filled with bubbles. Just when it seemed the screaming headlines about SodaStream and its controversial Scarlett Johansson Super Bowl ad had died down, along comes a Palestinian farmer to upset the seltzer cart. On Tuesday…
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Frank Sinatra’s Busy Years
Long-dead singer admits through publicist that he fathered Ronan Farrow, Zosia Mamet, Allison Williams and Barbra Streisand.
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Books Reinventing Israel in Argentina
Every year, of the 75,000 young Israelis who complete their military service, it is estimated that around one third leave everything behind to go backpacking. The nomadic ramble through Southeast Asia and South America in that indeterminate period between youth and adulthood is hardly unique to Israel, but it takes on its own characteristics at…
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News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
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Opinion Trump is forcing liberal Zionists to confront an extraordinarily inconvenient truth
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News ‘Very misguided’: ADL regional board member resigns over organization’s approach to antisemitism and civil rights
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Opinion Zohran Mamdani is right about what ‘intifada’ means — well, kind of
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Opinion Will the U.S. get involved in Iran? Mike Huckabee’s evangelical worldview may be the key
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Fast Forward Trump is keeping the world guessing about his Iran intentions. Could his first term offer clues?
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Fast Forward In tearful address, Mamdani laments criticism following his ‘globalize the intifada’ comments
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