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
-
Looking Back: October 5, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 The infamous gangster Big Jack Zelig, was shot Saturday, October 5, at 8 p.m., on the corner of 14th Street and Second Avenue, as he sat in his car. Zelig, who was scheduled to testify as a major witness in the trial of vice cop Charles Becker, slithered to the floor…
-
Looking Back: September 28, 2012
**100 Years Ago 1912 Seven young Jewish girls stood before the magistrate in Essex Market Court, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, on charges of running an illegal gambling ring out of Mrs. Rays’ Hairdressing Parlour, located on Second Avenue between Houston and First Streets. The police raid on the hairdressing parlor caused a huge sensation…
-
Looking Back: September 21, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 Louis Budinsky, a resident of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, went straight to the police after having received a letter stating that if he didn’t come up with $100, all his horses would meet an ugly end. Budinsky then received a phone call from the horse poisoners, and he told them that…
The Latest
-
Looking Back: September 14, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 Real estate magnate Harris Diamond, recently retired, had become depressed and pessimistic after the death of his wife. His children tried to cheer him up, but without success. Recently he was found dead in his Manhattan apartment, on Lexington Avenue. His death was a suicide. Diamond had closed all the windows…
-
Looking Back: September 7, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 Everything was set for the forthcoming wedding of Rose Mann and Isadore Schwartz. But then, tragedy struck: Mann was found dead in the Brooklyn apartment she was setting up for the young couple to reside in after their wedding. She had taken her own life by turning on the gas and…
-
Looking Back: August 24, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 According to New York City District Attorney Charles Whitman, detectives have located Louis “Lefty Louie” Rosenberg, who is one of the suspects wanted for the murder of casino owner Herman “Beansie” Rosenthal. The DA told reporters that he anticipates that “Lefty” will be in police custody by the next week. Reporters…
-
The Way I Was
As a Jewish gay man, I know that Barbra Streisand should be a double icon. A strong woman with a knack for musicals, she’s in the gay pantheon right next to Audrey Hepburn and, l’havdil, Madonna. And for Jews, of course, she’s the one who made it big, and did it her way: no name…
-
Legends of the Fall
‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” As often as we read these words, which we do every Simchat Torah when beginning the…
-
On a Clear Day You Can See Flatbush
Barbra Streisand has a doll shop in her basement. Part of an old-timey underground “street” — complete with clapboard storefronts and faux-stone walls — built beneath the dream home featured in her 2010 coffee table book, “My Passion for Design,” the showroom for antique playthings fills a void from Streisand’s childhood: “I never played with…
-
Naomi Replansky’s Career Began in a Factory
In a storage area of Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, there is a striking portrait known to only a few art lovers. It’s the work of Joseph Solman (1909–2008), the Vitebsk-born American Jewish artist whose studio was located for decades over the former site of New York City’s 2nd Avenue Deli. Painted in…
-
Bob Dylan’s Best and Worst Album Covers
My relationship with Bob Dylan is similar to my relationship with Woody Allen: I’m a fan of these old Jewish guys, and I get excited when a new release is announced. Even after “Knocked Out Loaded,” even after the film “Celebrity,” I keep the faith — and when I’m treated to a “Time Out of…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
- 2
Opinion Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear
- 3
Film & TV How Jon Stewart evolved on Israel — at least on ‘The Daily Show’
- 4
Opinion I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward American Jewish Committee donates $25K to Gaza church damaged by Israeli strike
-
Fast Forward Jews prefer Mamdani to other NYC mayoral candidates but worry about their safety under him, poll finds
-
Fast Forward Novelist David Grossman says Israeli is committing ‘genocide’ in Gaza, joining a rising chorus
-
Fast Forward New Trump policy letting federal employees proselytize at work references tefillin
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
