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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From Dancing Barres to Prison Bars, Avodah Makes Its Mark
Four days before the debut of their newest work, entitled “moving voices inside out,” the four women of Avodah Dance were holding a bumpy run-through in a fourth-floor playroom in Manhattan’s 14th Street Y. Dancer Sarah Zitnay, her black socks more holes than fabric, seared the edges of adhesive tape with a lighter and then…
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Why Judas Still Conjures Up Images of the Jew as Christ-Killer
‘I never informed or ratted on nobody,” John “The Executioner” Martorano said while testifying at the trial of crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger in a Boston court June 18. Martorano, a professional hit man with a confessed 20 murders under his belt, had agreed to take the witness stand against Bulger and his partner, Stevie…
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Lower East Side Physician Arrested for Dealing Cocaine and Opium
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 illuminating, edifying and sometimes wacky clippings from the Jewish past. 100 years ago 1913 Abraham Glickstein, a well-known physician who resides on Manhattan’s Lower…
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Jewish Artist Who Once Called Chagall’s Art ‘Crappy’ Finally Gets His Due
The French Jewish painter Sam Szafran is the subject of an exhibit, “Sam Szafran, 50 Years of Painting,” at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny, Switzerland, and a new book, [“Sam Szafran: Entretiens avec Alain Veinstein” (“Sam Szafran, Conversations With Alain Veinstein”)][3], that sheds further light on the artist’s inspirations. Born Samuel Berger in Paris…
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Abrom Kaplan’s Cajun Dream
Driving west on I-10 out of New Orleans, you plunge almost immediately into a world made more of water than of land. First you cross the Bonnet Carre Spillway, which channels overflowing river water into Lake Pontchartrain. Later, in Baton Rouge, you rattle 175 feet above the Mississippi on a rickety cantilever bridge. And then,…
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Books The Kosher Ice Cream Caper
Earlier this week Timothy D. Lytton wrote about a recent scandal at a kosher meat market in L.A. and organized crime and kosher food certification. 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 series, please visit:…
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So, a Jew, a Black, a Pakistani and a President Go to Germany
On the eve of Barack Obama’s arrival in Germany, security measures are unparalleled, media sources claim. People tell me that America’s first black president is Germany’s dream and they want to make sure the dream never ends. This, of course, might explain why residents near the Brandenburger Tor have been asked to keep their windows…
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The Jewish History of ‘God Bless America’
In what would become an iconic display of mournful resolve after the twin towers fell, members of Congress who had gathered on the steps of the Capitol for a press conference on the evening of September 11, 2001, burst into a spontaneous chorus of “God Bless America.” Like many Americans watching that night, I was…
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Books A Lonely Golem
Earlier this week, Matthue Roth wrote about why kids love scary stories. 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 series, please visit: I was trying to figure out how to get people to buy “My…
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Books Scandal and Self-Correction in Kosher Food
Earlier this week Timothy D. Lytton wrote about organized crime and kosher food certification. 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 series, please visit: This past March, the owner of Doheny Glatt Kosher Meat Market,…
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How We Got Hitler-ized
It has been dismissed as a tempest in a teapot, but the recent brouhaha over JC Penney’s now-infamous Hitler teakettle may be more significant than it initially appears. Click to enlarge/Kurt Hoffman illustration. Far from being an isolated incident, it is merely the latest in a long series of news stories in recent years about…
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Opinion Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians
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Culture I ranked the NYC mayoral candidates exclusively based on their bagel orders
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Opinion Mike Huckabee’s stunning, terrifying new gift to the Israeli right
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Culture His parents fled the Nazis in 1937 — now he’s using his chutzpah to fight Donald Trump
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Fast Forward 24 hours of war leaves Israel reeling, with bomb shelters full and flights canceled
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Fast Forward In US lawmakers’ response to Israel’s strike on Iran, sweeping support with signs of tension
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Opinion Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times
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