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
-
I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
-
Jewish Gap-Year Program Opens in Portland
There are few, if any, options for teens in America who want a Jewish experience during their post-high school, pre-college gap year, but don’t want to spend time in Israel. That was a key incentive for Portland, Ore.-based contracting carpenter Steve Eisenbach-Budner to create Tivnu, the first Jewish social-justice themed gap-year program in the U.S.,…
-
The Resurrection of Chmielnik
About 15 years ago, when he was in his mid-20s, Piotr Krawczyk had a revelation that changed his life; in many respects it also ended up changing the life of Chmielnik, the sleepy little town in South Central Poland where he lives. “I found a book on the history of Chmielnik, and I read it,”…
The Latest
-
Of Susan Sontag, Debbie Harry, Anna Moffo and Wayne’s World
● My 1980s & Other Essays By Wayne Koestenbaum FSG Originals, 336 pages, $16 Why would you read a collection of essays by a critic who writes mostly about artists (of many kinds — filmmakers, painters, poets, singers, etc.) about whom you do not, with a few exceptions, know anything? Maybe because the critic teaches…
-
Send in the Jewish Clowns (Jugglers and Acrobats, Too)
Grimacing fiercely, muscular arms quivering, Adam Real Man slowly straightens a metal horseshoe as the crowd stares, grinning in disbelief. His feat of strength is spot-on entertainment at the opening night reception of ‘Topsy Turvy: Coney Island Artists and the Amusement Utopia” at the Deutsche Bank’s 60 Wall Gallery. His skills are improbable. Even more…
-
Cracking the Ugaritic Code
Forward reader Raffi Bilek has some questions about Ugaritic, the ancient Semitic language, closely related to biblical Hebrew, that was unearthed in archaeological excavations begun in the late 1920s at the ancient site of Ugarit, along the Syrian coast north of Latakia. Mr. Bilek asks: “How do we know that Ugaritic is so similar to…
-
The Extraordinary Heroism of Hannah Senesh
Hannah Senesh was a young Hungarian poet and diarist who was captured and executed November 7, 1944, at age 23, by military police after parachuting into Yugoslavia and then entering Hungary to try to smuggle Jews out of the country. Many know of her brave act of enlisting with the British army and the Haganah,…
-
Shlomo Carlebach Comes to Broadway in ‘Soul Doctor’ Musical
Almost 20 years after his death, Shlomo Carlebach is still a problem. To some fans, Carlebach was the “Singing Rabbi,” a folk music star who performed alongside Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. To others he was a scholar and a sage, a talmudic genius and a spiritual leader in the tradition of the early…
-
Books Joseph Goebbels Novel Faces Ban in Russia
Russian prosecutors are investigating the appearance of a Russian-language edition of a book by Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, to rule whether it is extremist and should be banned. State prosecutors in Russia’s second largest city, St Petersburg, launched the probe into the novel “Michael” this week after it appeared in early 2013 on…
-
Heyday of Farrar, Straus & Giroux Made Publishing House Seem Like ‘Mad Men’
● Hothouse: The Art of Survival and the Survival of Art at America’s Most Celebrated Publishing House, Farrar, Straus & Giroux By Boris Kachka Simon & Schuster, 448 pages, $28 Descended from the influential Straus and Guggenheim families, Roger W. Straus Jr. bestrode the publishing company he co-founded in 1946 with “a sui generis blend…
-
Books Holland’s Largest Jewish Bookstore Closes for Good
One of Western Europe’s largest Hebrew bookstores has closed down in Amsterdam as its former owners prepare to immigrate to Israel. Samech, located in southern Amsterdam, has been supplying Hebrew-language books to members of Holland’s Jewish community for nearly 40 years and possessed a stock of 100,000 books, according to the website of the Dutch…
-
BRCA ‘Jewish’ Cancer Gene Mutations Often Go Untested — At Deadly Cost
When Marcia Watson-Levy was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 at age 58, she suspected that heredity played a role: Her sister Rhoda had died of breast cancer 12 years before, at 52. Yet Watson-Levy, who then lived in San Francisco, said that none of her physicians — her primary doctor, her surgeon or her…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Is Pope Leo Jewish? Ask his distant cousins — like me
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward As rivals talk antisemitism, this NYC mayoral candidate pitches a bread and butter appeal to Orthodox voters
-
Opinion The staggering hypocrisy behind Trump’s deal to free the last living American hostage
-
Fast Forward Russell Brand defends Ye’s ‘Heil Hitler’ music video
-
Opinion Though sworn enemies, Hamas and Donald Trump seem to share a common language
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
