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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Books Jews and the Novella
Daniel Torday’s novella “The Sensualist” won the 2012 National Jewish Book Award in Outstanding Debut Fiction. His debut novel, “The Last Flight of Poxl West,” will be published by St. Martin’s Press in 2015. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog…
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John Zorn Talks Music, Mysticism and the Messiah as He Turns 60
John Zorn’s East Village apartment is like his music: an exceptionally-concentrated, perfectl- composed space celebrating the artistic experience. Thousands of records and tapes and CDs and books, well-ordered, each tug at the visitor’s elbow for attention. For many years, John Zorn — composer, performer, arranger, independent music distributor — has been a major voice in…
The Latest
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Separating Jesus the Man From the Myth
Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth By Reza Aslan Random House, 336 pages, $27 Is it possible to change the tenor of public debate on a subject with a piece of writing? Is it conceivable that the “general reader” still exists, that judgment-suspended individual who picks up a book because she or…
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Raphael Lemkin and Samantha Power’s Problem From Hell
Totally Unofficial: The Autobiography of Raphael Lemkin Edited by Donna-Lee Frieze Yale University Press, 328 pages, $35 Ten years ago, Samantha Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her book “A Problem From Hell,” a history of American inaction in the face of genocide. As she awaits Senate confirmation to be the country’s next ambassador to…
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A Constellation of Theories Regarding the Nebulous History of Orion
Forward reader Ady Manory writes: “I’ve been wondering about the origin of the Hebrew name of the constellation Orion, k’sil. Is it Babylonian? Is it related to the Hebrew month of Kislev? I’d love to find out if the name was a Jewish way of disparaging the accepted mythology of the times.” Mr. Manory is…
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Man Steals Family Photos So Not To Appear Forverts’ ‘Missing Husbands’ Gallery
Forward Looking Back brings you the stories that were making news in the Forward’s Yiddish paper 100, 75, and 50 years ago. Check back each week for a new set of illluminating, edifying and sometimes wacky clippings from the Jewish past. 1913 •100 years ago Becky Sher Wants a Get Becky Sher of Winnipeg wanted…
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Books Editing the Smallest College Daily in America
An anthology of 50-plus years of Ron Rubin’s published commentary on topics of import to world Jewry, “A Jewish Professor’s Political Punditry” (Syracuse University Press), is now available. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the…
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Books Author Blog: Becoming an Anthologist
Earlier this week, Ron Rubin wrote about visiting the Soviet Union and Peri Devaney wrote about working on the postscript for her anthology, “A Jewish Professor’s Political Punditry: Fifty-Plus Years of Published Commentary by Ron Rubin” (Syracuse University Press). Today, Peri discusses organizing the material for the anthology. Their blog posts are featured on The…
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Woody Allen Mashes Up Tennessee Williams and the Madoff Scandal
“Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice” (Proverbs, 24:17). That was easy for Solomon to say; it’s harder when your enemy is the ex-wife of a white-collar criminal who did plenty of rejoicing herself while living high on the ill-gotten hog. Who wouldn’t want to laugh…
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A Civil Disagreement About Jews and War
On his second to last day as executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society, Jonathan Karp is patrolling the galleries of the Center for Jewish History. “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War” is on exhibit here until August 11, at which point the majority of it will move to the Jewish…
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Two Meals, 30 Years Apart in Jerusalem
This is a story about food and marriage, and a very special place in Jerusalem. It is a story in three parts — the first two written more than three decades ago, the third written only last month. • It was April 23, 1980, precisely one month after my husband, Mark Berger, and I were…
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Culture Fifth graders write — Why is Abraham Cahan, founder of the Forward, worth celebrating?
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