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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The towering Jewish critic who taught me to grok art and hate Picasso
After Max Kozloff died at 91, a New York community came together to remember and to mourn
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Books Author Blog: The Historian’s Challenge
Gerald Sorin’s most recent book, “Howard Fast: Life and Literature in the Left Lane,” is now available. Sorin won the 2003 National Jewish Book Award in History for I“Irving Howe: A Life of Passionate Dissent.” His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author…
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Dark Days Are Here Again
From time to time I like to go to a bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan called The Magician. It’s the décor that draws me. The Magician has the straight lines, dark wood and high polish of early-to-midcentury art deco style that make me feel, for an hour or two, like the hero…
The Latest
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Books Author Blog: Super Tuesday
Haim Watzman is a Jerusalem-based writer, journalist, and translator. He is the author of “Company C: An American’s Life as a Citizen-Soldier in Israel” and “A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel’s Rift Valley,” which will be available as ebooks this week. Haim was a 2008 finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for…
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Israelis Should Avoid Using Term ‘Apartheid’
“Most Israelis support an apartheid regime [mishtar apartheid] in Israel,” announced the lead headline in the October 23 issue of the left-liberal Hebrew daily Haaretz, Israel’s most internationally prestigious newspaper. “Survey: Most Israeli Jews advocate discrimination against Arab citizens,” was the translation of this headline in the same day’s English edition of the paper. Any…
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Music Peres Praises Abbas’ ‘Courageous’ Concession
Israeli President Shimon Peres hailed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as a courageous partner for peace on Saturday after the Palestinian leader made clear his support for a two-state solution to the decades old conflict with Israel. In an interview with Israeli television broadcast this week, the Western-backed Abbas also hinted that Palestinians who, prior to…
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Music Bibi Skeptical on ‘Right of Return’ Concession
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced scepticism on Sunday at an apparent concession from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on a major sticking point in any future peace negotiations. Abbas’s comments on Thursday that he had no permanent claim on the town of Safed, from which he was driven during a 1948 war, were widely seen…
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Faster Than A Speeding Tallis
Superman Is Jewish? By Harry Brod Free Press, 240 pages, $25 There has been a little boom, recently, in books about the links between Jews and comic books. Stack up Simcha Weinstein’s “Up, Up, and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero,” Danny Fingeroth’s “Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews,…
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Books Author Blog: For the Sake of Unification
Earlier this week, Lisa Alcalay Klug wrote about a surprising discovery in Nachlaot and about how her work is informed by her father’s experiences during the Holocaust. 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,…
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Then and Now, Trying to Demystify Kosher Rites
Within the past few months, circumcision and other Jewish rituals such as kashrut, the dietary laws, and shechita, the kosher butchering of animals, have been the subject of considerable attention, much of it condemnatory. But then, that shouldn’t occasion too much of a surprise: For centuries, and continuing into our own day, the corporeal practices…
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Books Author Blog: Seeking Connection
Earlier, Lisa Alcalay Klug wrote about how her work is informed by her father’s experiences during the Holocaust. 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: If there is one consistent theme in…
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Books Author Blog: It’s Not All in a Name
Lisa Alcalay Klug’s most recent book, “Hot Mamalah: The Ultimate Guide for Every Woman of the Tribe,” is now available. She is also the author of “Cool Jew: The Ultimate Guide for Every Member of the Tribe,” a National Jewish Book Awards Finalist. Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the…
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