Stories about how we look at Jewish artists and how Jewish artists look at the world.
Forward With the Arts
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Culture Two hundred artworks later, has Bob Dylan finally painted his masterpiece?
Does Bob Dylan write his songs in black and white or in color? This is just one question of many that occur to a viewer after spending a few hours with the 200-odd visual artworks that comprise “Bob Dylan Retrospectrum,” on exhibit through April 17 at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum on the…
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Culture Timeless anthems, Hanukkah lyrics and Yiddish illustrations — Woody Guthrie contained multitudes
Just about everyone can sing a verse or two of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” a folk ballad so popular that it can almost double as an American hymn. But did you know that Guthrie also wrote Hanukkah lyrics, sketched illustrations for Yiddish poems, drew a colorful birth announcement of his son Arlo…
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Culture With Jewish practice being constantly updated, it’s about time for Judaica to catch up
For a religion that has never been static, Judaism has been utilizing many of the same outdated, unchanging ritual objects for what seems like eternity. Judaica has never kept pace with Judaism’s ever-evolving rituals and beliefs, and that’s precisely what Montreal-based potter Sarah Dolin is determined to change. Dolin creates updated, progressive Jewish ritual objects…
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Culture Babyn Yar, Putin’s war in Ukraine, and the paintings my grandfather never got to see exhibited
When Russian bombs fell on the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial in Kyiv the other day, killing more people on top of the tens of thousands slaughtered there by the Nazis, it was an especially painful moment for me. I had been invited to have my grandfather’s paintings – the first artistic renditions of the massacre…
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Culture Architect of memorial synagogue at Babyn Yar: Bombing “leaves me speechless, numb and powerless”
In May, the Forward spoke to architect Manuel Herz about a new synagogue he’d designed at the site of Babyn Yar (for years commonly referred to as Babi Yar), where SS officers and Ukrainian allies murdered 34,000 Jews in 1941. Herz modeled the structure after the colorful wooden synagogues that once dotted the Pale of…
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Culture He survived a Nazi work camp to shape the world of modern film
In October 1949, Jonas Mekas arrived in New York City broke and nearly broken. The Lithuanian artist had survived a Nazi work camp and several years as a refugee, and was supposed to travel on to Chicago where a job in a bakery awaited. But the buzz of New York City energized him and so…
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Culture In painting a survivor of the Holocaust, a feeling of overwhelming and indescribable privilege
“Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust,” an exhibition of paintings commissioned by Charles, Prince of Wales was previously shown in Buckingham Palace and soon may be visited at The Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland, until June 6, 2022. In the catalogue, portraits of Holocaust survivors now living in the…
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Culture A way to forgive debts and leave fields fallow — even if you’re not a farmer in Israel
What’s the best way to observe the shmita year? Perhaps a seven stranded havdalah candle, or a special set of bowls — we use special dishes for Passover, after all. For those of us who don’t work in agriculture, shmita can be easily overlooked. But “The Shmita Project,” a new exhibit at the Osher Marin…
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Opinion Who’s responsible for deadly antisemitism? Everyone will hate the answer
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Antisemitism Decoded The antisemites are enjoying themselves
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Fast Forward UCLA student government condemns campus Hillel for hosting former hostage
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Culture Lena Dunham’s new memoir is the most millennial thing ever
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Fast Forward 200+ Bnei Menashe immigrate to Israel from India, the first to make the journey in years
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Yiddish װאָס קען מען זיך אָפּלערנען פֿון מאָלי קראַבעפּלס בוך װעגן „בונד“?What can we learn from Molly Crabapple’s book about the Bund?
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט
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Sports Today’s American Jews finally have their era’s Sandy Koufax
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Fast Forward Netanyahu reveals prostate cancer treatment, says he hid diagnosis during Iran war