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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Barbra Streisand’s brand-new duet with Bob Dylan is a whole lot different than you might think
Though Dylan and Streisand's voices may seem ill-suited to each other, the two complement each other gorgeously on 'The Very Thought of You'
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West Side Story, With a Shofar Blast
Why does it begin with a shofar call? Once you compare the famous, startling first three notes of Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” score with a real shofar sounding “Tekiah g’dolah,” as I did in 1996 to demonstrate this point on WNYC, the resemblance is undeniable. Once you notice it, this shofar theme is woven…
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Books Werner Sombart: Portrait of an Anti-Semite
Earlier this week, Ned Beauman wrote about Oscar Panizza and Henry Ford. His debut novel, “Boxer, Beetle” (Bloomsbury), is now available. His posts are being featured this week 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: Can an…
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Tough to Put the Kibosh on Kol Nidre
If American Jewish popular culture is any indication, Kol Nidre is the one prayer American Jews happen to know well. Over the years, they’ve encountered it on long-playing records, like those produced by the Victor Talking Machine Company in the 1920s, and at the movies, where the cinematic plot hinged on whether the not-so-loyal son…
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Books Q&A: Poet Elinor Nauen on Writing Ottava Rima for Derek Jeter
Elinor Nauen is Manhattan’s unofficial poet laureate of cars and baseball. Her newest book, “So Late Into the Night,” is a rollicking road trip on the model of Byron’s “Don Juan,” with over 600 stanzas of ottava rima about Derek Jeter (her non-Platonic obsession), road trips, her husband, morning minyan and herself. Nauen chatted with…
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Comedy About Cancer? ’50/50′ Pulls It Off
I was initially hesitant to see “50/50,” the new Seth Rogen “cancer comedy.” Cancer movies always seem to go in one of two directions — heroism or epiphany. Either the main character’s illness causes a life-altering revelation (“Stepmom”), or a terminally ill character transforms the main character into a better person (“A Walk To Remember”)….
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Virtuous Woman Worth Weight in Coral?
An unusual request comes from South Africa. Neil Tuchten, a high court judge in that country, writes that he is about to hand down an opinion, written in Afrikaans, on property rights in a divorce case, and he wishes to begin it with the well-known verse in the book of Proverbs that reads in the…
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Looking Back: October 14, 2011
100 Years Ago in the Forward Our latest hero is a 17-year-old sweatshop worker from Cleveland, Becky Fisher. During the 11-week-old cloak makers strike, Fisher has been arrested 39 times. She has been beaten by hired goons, cursed by the police and threatened by judges. Despite all that, she has consistently refused to back down….
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Books Ford v. Sapiro
On Monday, Ned Beauman wrote about Oscar Panizza. His debut novel, “Boxer, Beetle” (Bloomsbury), is now available. His posts are being featured this week 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: Henry Ford might be the most…
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Anthony Weiner’s Personalized Prayer List
The week before Yom Kippur, it is customary for Jews to repent in synagogue for their sins. The Forward has received a copy of former Rep. Anthony Weiner’s personalized prayer list. Oh Exalted God, For the sin of Abusing my power, For the sin of Betraying my constituents, For the sin of Cruelty to my…
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Books David Rakoff Wins Thurber Humor Prize
“It’s nice enough to be able to make a living as a writer, so awards are absolutely gravy,” David Rakoff told The Arty Semite after winning the 2011 Thurber Prize for American Humor on October 3 for his third collection of essays, “Half Empty.” “It’s lovely,” he said in a phone conversation this morning. “But…
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‘Prohibition’ Tells Changing Story of Jews in America
In 1908, in Shreveport, La., a black man named Charles Colman was charged with the rape and murder of a 14-year-old white girl. Colman was drunk, and, a reporter for Collier’s implied, had likely been drinking something called “Black Cock Vigor Gin,” which featured a picture of a nude white woman on its label, along…
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