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
-
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
-
Reclaiming Jewish Classics With a Trip To the Farmers’ Market
Wandering through the farmers market with a reusable tote bag and a beatific smile has become the ultimate in foodie clichés, and for good reason. There is little more satisfying to a home cook than tipping forth the day’s haul onto the kitchen counter — a pound of coral-colored rhubarb, say, a silky pile of…
-
10 Reasons Superman Is Really Jewish
. Who knew Superman was Jewish? Well, some of us did, but a lot more didn’t. While Warner Bros. is releasing the new Superman film, “Man of Steel,” and the superhero himself is celebrating his 75th birthday, it seemed a good time to ask the author of “Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring…
The Latest
-
Books An Interview With My Babbi and Zayde
Earlier this week, Royal Young wrote about his parents’ reaction to his debut memoir, “Fame Shark.” 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: My maternal grandmother fought to escape her Lower East…
-
Books Charles Bernstein Makes Lovely Cacophony in his Latest Collection
● Recalculating By Charles Bernstein University of Chicago Press, 189 pages, $25 As an old joke goes, there are three types of people in the world: schlemiel, the guy who will spill the soup; schlimazel, the one whose lap the soup will get spilt on, and the nudnik, who asks, “What kind of a soup…
-
True History of an Unknown Hero of the French Jewish Resistance
Shortly after she agreed to speak to me for an interview, Charlotte Sorkine Noshpitz tells me that she has had a dream. Members of her Resistance group are seated on the floor, the way children in a group sometimes arrange themselves. She is standing — behind them, looking down at their heads. She is shocked…
-
Poor Heiress Pens Unorthodox Orthodox Memoir
Rokeby is an estate along the Hudson River that was built nearly 200 years ago by relatives of John Jacob Astor, America’s first multimillionaire. About two dozen people currently live in various buildings spread out along the 400-plus acres of rolling hills. But the 43-room stucco mansion at Rokeby) is occupied by a handful of…
-
David Nirenberg Traces The Long, Bewildering History of Anti-Semitism
● Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition By David Nirenberg W.W. Norton & Company, 624 pages, $35 Anti-Semitism’s eternal recurrence is so puzzling that it can invite mystification. Even the secularist Yiddish poet Yitzchak Katznelson, grappling with the Nazi extermination of European Jewry, resorted to religious myth. In his “Song of the Murdered Jewish People” (completed shortly…
-
What Makes a Jewish Joke Jewish?
● No Joke: Making Jewish Humor By Ruth R. Wisse Princeton University Press, 292 pages, $24.95 As a well-known Yiddish expression has put it, “A joke is a half-truth.” Ruth Wisse presents readers of her latest work, “No Joke: Making Jewish Humor,” with half-a-book. The effective half offers a general audience analysis of literature and…
-
Books My Family’s Reaction to ‘Fame Shark’
Royal Young’s debut memoir “Fame Shark” will be released June 2013 from Heliotrope Books. Young contributes to Interview Magazine, New York Post, BOMB Magazine and The Lo Down. 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…
-
Everybody Knows The Cliche Of The Jewish Mother — But What About Jewish Dads?
Happy Jewish Father’s Day — and you know what that means, right? Well, actually, you probably don’t. Because unlike Jewish mothers, who’ve got a stereotype that just won’t die (not even if it goes outside without a sweater), Jewish fathers are not defined as any one thing. Which got me wondering: Why not? Why are…
-
It’s a Hebrew Thing — You Get It or You Don’t
In last week’s column, I argued, in discussing the Hebrew word sefirah, that the kabbalistic doctrine of the 10 sefirot or emanations of the divinity was not a result of Christian influence. This week, going from the cosmic to the strictly linguistic, I’ve been led to the conclusion that a well-known rabbinical expression definitely was…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Exclusive: ADL chief compares student protesters to ISIS and al-Qaida in address to Republican officials
- 2
Opinion Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians
- 3
Culture I ranked the NYC mayoral candidates exclusively based on their bagel orders
- 4
News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Security groups warn Jews abroad to remain vigilant following Israeli strike against Iran
-
Fast Forward 45 years ago, Iran waged its own preemptive strike on nuclear facilities
-
Fast Forward Donald Trump: ‘Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left’
-
Film & TV Marlee Matlin may not be ‘alone anymore,’ but deaf representation remains sparse in Hollywood
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
