For 125 years, the Forward has delivered accurate, timely and nuanced news to American Jews. From breaking news to in-depth investigations, our reporting team covers the people, institutions and issues that define the many ways to be Jewish in the…
News
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think
The Innocents
Anne Fontaine’s powerful and compelling French-Polish drama “The Innocents” is based on the little-known true story of the French Red Cross doctor Madeleine Pauliac, played by Lou de Laâge. Set in the bleak, snow-covered landscape of postwar Poland in 1945, it’s a striking film with an almost painterly quality to it as it ponders the…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think You Want It Darker
The musical year of 2016 was bookended by dark valedictories: David Bowie’s “Blackstar” and Leonard Cohen’s “You Want It Darker.” Both Bowie and Cohen knew that their ends were near, and both passed on to the next realm just as their last brilliant works were released. Cohen’s final album — in particular its haunting title…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Transparent
Jill Soloway’s “Transparent” might be the most perfect example of a liberal, privileged bubble, but it transcends this much-discussed bubble, because every character is profoundly flawed and any hint of smugness is quickly eradicated by humor and pain. 2016’s third season offered so many memorable images and lines, but it’s the opening credits that get…
The Latest
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Captain Fantastic
‘Captain Fantastic” is noteworthy for its refreshing views of an authoritarian patriarch, Ben Cash (a terrific performance by Viggo Mortensen), gussied up as a forward-thinking intellectual. Dad’s political motto is “Stick It to the Man,” and he celebrates Noam Chomsky’s birthday instead of Christmas. His children are conversant in Marx, “Middlemarch” and Yo-Yo Ma, but…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Lemonade
What got me most this year, (pre-election, it must be said) was Beyoncé’s “visual album,” “Lemonade,” which chronicles a deep betraying love but is also about everything: The history of the world, being a black women in America, fathers and daughters, performance, mothers and daughters, American cities and countries and towns, violence. Alchemy. Deep, unapologetic,…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Unterzakhn
It took me a moment to appreciate Leela Corman’s brilliant graphic novel, “Unterzakhn” because it’s all things I am not: brassy, polished and containing multiple complex storylines. Leela, forgive me the review I wrote in this newspaper when I was an insecure young person. I’ve been saving Corman’s recent book — a collection of short…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think The Family Fang
A dark comedy that is at moments side-splittingly funny, “The Family Fang” zeroes in on the emotionally damaged adult children (Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman) of two pretentious and talent-free performance artists (Maryann Plunkett and Christopher Walken). Fang Sr. is a manipulative bastard, openly contemptuous of his kids, a novelist and actress, respectively, because they are…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Heavyweight
Audio veteran Jonathan Goldstein (of “This American Life” and the CBC Radio show “WireTap”) premiered his new show, “Heavyweight,” this year, and it quickly proved to be one of the best podcasts of 2016. Goldstein, who grew up with Brooklyn-born Jewish parents in a suburb of Montreal, has a voice that puts a unique but…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think My Distraction Sickness
We’re all addicted. And we’re all in trouble. That’s the blaring siren of a message from Andrew Sullivan’s New York magazine cover story from September, “My Distraction Sickness — and Yours.” The piece tells the personal story of how Sullivan unplugged from his life as a hyper-prolific blogger and spent time recovering at a silent…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think On The Map
My best time at the movies this year was seeing “On the Map,” an uplifting documentary directed and written by Dani Menkin about how the hard work of the players of its Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team put Israel on the world map in 1977 by winning the EuroCup. Menkin deftly interweaves archival footage with…
-
49 Reasons Why 2016 Wasn't as Bad as You Think Jeremy Denk
For years I’ve been reading the essays and blog posts of MacArthur “genius” grant-winning pianist Jeremy Denk. Not since Leonard Bernstein has the music world had such a compelling explainer. Who else would compare a moment in the first movement of Beethoven’s Opus 31 No. 3 to a “Seinfeld” episode? Last March, I finally heard…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Is Pope Leo Jewish? Ask his distant cousins — like me
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward For the first time since Henry VIII created the role, a Jew will helm Hebrew studies at Cambridge
-
Fast Forward Argentine Supreme Court discovers over 80 boxes of forgotten Nazi documents
-
News In Edan Alexander’s hometown in New Jersey, months of fear and anguish give way to joy and relief
-
Fast Forward What’s next for suspended student who posted ‘F— the Jews’ video? An alt-right media tour
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
