This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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Crusading Photographer Seeks To Save Israeli Mom-and-Pop Shops for Posterity
One morning a week, Assi Haim roams the streets of the old neighborhoods of Tel Aviv with his camera and tripod. He’s racing against time, trying to document a piece of history before it disappears. Haim is searching for “The Rebels,” the elderly owners of small shops who refuse to bow to the crushing winds…
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Orthodox World Provides Backdrop for Rama Burshtein’s Universal Story
The night before Rama Burshtein shot the last scene of “Fill the Void,” she couldn’t sleep. It was going to be her last day on set, and a large group of extras was scheduled to arrive, including her own children. More daunting, she was going to be shooting a wedding scene, one of the film’s…
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Books Author Blog: The Memorial
Joanna Hershon’s most recent novel, “A Dual Inheritance,” was published earlier this month by Ballantine Books. Her 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 recently attended my friend’s father’s memorial. It was…
The Latest
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Judith Malina Joins Jewish Show Business Stars in Next Stage of Life
Video: Nate Lavey Anarchist-pacifist Judith Malina, who co-founded the iconic Living Theatre, doesn’t want to be in an assisted living facility at all. Still, she concedes that the picturesque Lillian Booth Actors’ Home, in Englewood, N.J., with its manicured lawns and gardens, is pretty nice. At least she’s among fellow artists. Operated by The Actors’…
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Music Israel Claims Palestinian Boy in Iconic Video Wasn’t Actually Shot and Killed
Claims that Israeli troops in 2000 killed the Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura are “baseless,” an Israeli government committee concluded. The panel of experts made the statement in its 36-page report presented Sunday — Israel’s most comprehensive official response to a disputed video shot by a French television station. According to the report, “there are many…
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Could The Holy Ghost Be Jewish?
Robert J. Foley of Wilmington, N.C., sends me a copy of an open letter written by author and rabbi Rami Shapiro to Pope Francis. In it, Rabbi Shapiro hopes that “ruach ha-kodesh, the Holy Spirit, has called a new pope from the new world to lead the Catholic Church,” and Mr. Foley writes: “Rabbi Shapiro……
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Who Was Afraid of Viviane Forrester?
After a long battle with cancer, the French Jewish novelist and essayist Viviane Forrester died in April at the age of 87. Not everyone mourned her death: Neither the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, more commonly known under the acronym CRIF, or the Tribune Juive marked her passing. But most everyone, including her…
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A New York Jewish Man Tries To Commit Suicide by Cocaine
1913 •100 years ago Cocaine, Suicide and Incest Why did Dr. Jacob Haas attempt to take his own life in such a grotesque manner? Last Tuesday, Haas ingested 10 grams of cocaine and slashed his own throat, but missed the jugular and managed to remain alive after Meyer Wolf, a doctor who lives a few…
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Books Shame, Truth, and Reconciliation
In her first installments of “Collective Guilt vs. Collective Fear,” Randy Susan Meyers wrote about an essay in which the writer met with an elderly former SS officer and the plight of ordinary German citizen during World War II. Her newest novel, “The Comfort of Lies,” is now available. Her blog posts are featured on…
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The Return of Richard Foreman, Rabbi of New York’s Downtown Theater Scene
In the bad old days, when downtown Manhattan was still overrun by scruffy, industrious, half-lunatic artists exploring the possibilities of theater and performance with great purpose but no thought toward the market, Richard Foreman was our rabbi. Each spring, a new play written, directed and designed by him would appear at the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the…
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The Hank Greenberg Story That ’42’ Forgot
Anyone seeing “42” would be horrified at the hostility Jackie Robinson faced from his teammates and opposing players and catcalling from the stands when he integrated Major League Baseball. What the film did not depict was the reported encounter Robinson had with the one baseball player who could best understand the prejudice the Civil Rights…
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