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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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
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The Secret Jewish History of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’
Every generation gets the film version of “The Great Gatsby” it deserves. Ours will be a 3-D “Gatsby” directed by Baz Luhrmann — he of the hyperactive, swooping camera of “Moulin Rouge!” and the highly stylized, gaudy adaptation of “Romeo + Juliet.” But like every previous “Gatsby” adaptation, this one will speak with just the…
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Books A Scandalous Theory of Defense
Jonathan Kirsch is book editor of The Jewish Journal. Earlier this week, he wrote about Jewish resistance and restoring Herschel Grynszpan to the pages of history 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…
The Latest
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Books Restoring Herschel Grynszpan to History
Jonathan Kirsch is book editor of The Jewish Journal. Earlier this week, he wrote about Jewish resistance and Herschel Grynszpan. 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 new book, “The Short,…
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Books How the Macho Male Identifies With Wildlife
Helène Aylon is an activist artist whose work has been shown in MoMA, the Whitney and the Warhol museums. Her memoir, published by the Feminist Press, is called “Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released: My Jewish Orthodox Girlhood, My Life as a Feminist Artist.” Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of…
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Vera Gran’s Biographer Reconsiders the Stigma of Wartime Collaboration
● Vera Gran: The Accused By Agata Tuszynska Translated from the French of Isabelle Jannes-Kalinowski by Charles Ruas Alfred A. Knopf, 320 pages, $28.95 To contemporary American readers, the name Vera Gran may be unfamiliar. But Gran was a celebrated singer, a beauty with an unusually deep voice and a passionate following in Poland and…
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Ancient Tchotchkes Deepen Our Understanding of Jewish Pilgrims
Many of the tourists who trek to Israel inevitably pack for their return flight with a variety of kitschy souvenirs and gifts for friends back home: red “Kabbalah” bracelets; Israel Defense Forces T-shirts; clocks with the Hebrew alphabet; Israeli flag or hamsa key chains. Fourteen centuries ago the props were different, but the business model…
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Books Jewish Resistance and Herschel Grynszpan
Jonathan Kirsch is book editor of The Jewish Journal. His most recent book, “The Short, Strange Life of Herschel Grynszpan: A Boy Avenger, a Nazi Diplomat, and a Murder in Paris,” was published under the Liveright imprint of W. W. Norton to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht. His blog posts are featured on…
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What ‘Girls’ Could Learn From the ‘Good Wife’s’ Wife
Two of my favorite television shows ran on Sunday nights this past winter — “The Good Wife” on CBS and “Girls” on HBO — and because I didn’t have time on Sundays, I tended to catch them on demand on Monday nights, back to back. On the surface, these shows don’t have much in common;…
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Man Thinks, God Laughs, a Reader Writes and a Columnist Contemplates
A reader signing herself Goldele asks if I know anything about the origins of the well-known Yiddish proverb “Der mentsh trakht un got lakht,” “A man thinks and God laughs.” The knowledge that the future, whether conceived of as the result of blind fate or of a divine plan, is not under our control is…
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Paper Lauds Jewish National Home
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 and edifying clippings from the Jewish past. 100 Years Ago 1913 After Moses and Rachel Blum moved to New York from San Francisco,…
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Francesco Lotoro’s Mission To Save the Music of European Jews
‘We lament the loss of the treasures of the library at Alexandria, and the great step back in knowledge it entailed. The same thing will happen if we lose the music of the concentration camps. It’s an imaginary library that may never materialize.” Walking the narrow streets of the decaying industrial city of Barletta in…
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