This Week in Forward Arts and Culture

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
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Dan Friedman goes to see “Queen of the Sun,” a film about the potentially-catastrophic plight of North American bees.
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Nathan Jeffay looks into the controversy surrounding the first Jerusalem performance of “Jérusalem,” the Verdi opera about the Crusades.
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Yevgeniya Traps reviews “You Must Go and Win,” a memoir about trying to make it in the music business by Aline Simone, an immigrant from the Former Soviet Union.
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Lawrence L. Langer reviews “The End of the Holocaust” by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, a book about how popular culture has influenced Holocaust awareness.
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Philologos explains how the Yiddish word for wig stretches back to parrots, rocks and Jesus.
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In honor of Father’s Day, Ellen M. Kozak tells how she discovered her grandfather’s letter to the Bintel Brief from December 3, 1913.
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Benjamin Ivry celebrates the centenary of film composer Bernard Hermann, best known for his scores for movies by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
