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
-
Books
Author Blog: Sleeping on Felix Frankfurter’s Couch
Earlier this week, Joshua Henkin talked about how he came to write his latest novel, his father and grandfather, and explored the question: “Are you a Jewish writer?” 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…
-
Woody Lays an Egg
Woody Allen has made a lot of movies. I know this because I recently tried to watch them all in three days, over the Memorial Day weekend. It was impossible. To watch all 44 of Allen’s feature films back to back (and these are only the ones he wrote, directed or both), would take more…
-
Books Author Blog: How Did I End Up Doing This?
Earlier this week, Joshua Henkin talked about his father and grandfather and explored the question: “Are you a Jewish writer?” 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: For a long time I…
The Latest
-
Looking Back: June 29, 2011
100 Years Ago 1912 A gang of Italians held a pogrom in Manhattan, on 114th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, during which two Jews were shot and grievously wounded. Both victims, Morris Stromberg and George Pollack, are in critical condition in Harlem Hospital. The previous evening, Pollack, his wife and the couple’s 14 month-old…
-
Rebecca Lepkoff Keeps Going at 96
Street photographer Rebecca Lepkoff moves so fast that even those half her age can barely match her pace. One day the exuberant 96-year-old is shooting Latino storefronts in her Harlem neighborhood, the next she’s snapping her beloved Essex Street on the Lower East Side. In May, she boated up the Seine to Paris, where she…
-
Books From Grandfather to Father to Son
Joshua Henkin is the author of “The World Without You,” “Matrimony,” and “Swimming Across the Hudson.” Earlier this week he explored the question, “Are you a Jewish writer?” 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…
-
Thoughts That Move in Space
N18 (Complete) By Hank Lazer Singing Horse Press, 84 pages, $15 We associate the best literature with amnesia: While the book is open, we forget ourselves, curled up on a couch while the world melts away. Going through Hank Lazer’s latest poetry collection, “N18,” the reader is likely to experience precisely the opposite: Instead of…
-
Books What Archivists Are Worth
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Like the making of history, the writing of history is a collaborative venture. It may look as if ideas are entirely the product of the individual imagination but, as any honest, straight-talking historian will tell you, they are the result of a group effort. The writer-cum-historian gets all the…
-
Through Stained Glass, Brightly
If you were to poll the average American Jewish man and woman on the street about what constitutes normative American synagogue architecture, stained glass windows would probably be the very last thing that comes to mind. Some folks might be quick to conjure an image of an elaborately decorated Moorish-like interior; others, jokingly, might bring…
-
Books Author Blog: Are You a Jewish Writer?
Joshua Henkin is the author of “The World Without You,” “Matrimony,” and “Swimming Across the Hudson.” 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: First of all, I want to open up my…
-
A Guide for the Judgmental
A reader wishing to be identified only as “Harry” has a question about the Mishnaic tractate of Pirkei Avot or — as it is often called in English — “The Ethics of the Fathers.” (The Hebrew title literally means “Chapters of the Fathers,” the book being divided into six chapters in which many of the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward ‘Murdered for speaking truth’: Netanyahu and US Jewish leaders mourn Charlie Kirk
- 2
Antisemitism Decoded Israel is being blamed for Charlie Kirk’s death. Here’s what that conspiracy theory says about the far right’s divide
- 3
Culture Charlie Kirk kept a ‘Jewish Sabbath.’ What did he mean by that?
- 4
News Who was Horst Wessel, and why are people comparing Charlie Kirk to him?
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Amid terror in Jerusalem, a cab driver’s brave gesture showcased the Israel I’ve always loved
-
Looking Forward Everyone thought I was crazy for majoring in religious studies. Here’s why it matters now more than ever.
-
Culture Charlie Kirk kept a ‘Jewish Sabbath.’ What did he mean by that?
-
Fast Forward At least 5 countries have said they will or could boycott Eurovision if Israel is included
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
