Arts & Culture


The Mortara Case

By Raphael Mostel

If, as Christians believe, there is a hell, then surely Pope Pius IX earned a place in it for the kidnapping of the 6-year-old Jewish child of the Mortara family in 1858. New York’s enterprising Dicapo Opera Theatre commissioned, and has just given the world premiere of, a new opera based on this sensational true story.Read More

Out of the House of Bondage

By Judy Batalion

When I first came to London in 2001 and, in my brazen, comfortable-in-my- skin North-American way, wished a fellow performer a “happy Passover” during a workshop, she was shocked and cringed, and later told me to “shh in public.” This year, however, the London Jewish community is gearing up for the Other Seder, a 300-person event that includes puppet shows, Yiddish swing music and a video collaboration with Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El. Passover is a holiday that aims to celebrate springtime and newness, and what’s fresh in Britain is cultural Judaism.Read More

The Israeli Madonna

By Zohar Tirosh-Polk

In politics, Iranian nuclear power is causing Israel concern, but for more than 20 years, an Iranian-born Israeli pop powerhouse has been causing Israelis nothing but pleasure.Read More

Why Is This Night Different? Who’s Asking?

By Jay Michaelson

For several years now, I’ve reviewed some of the stacks of Haggadot that arrive seasonally at the Forward. “Of making books there is no end,” we’re told in the Book of Proverbs, and Passover seems to prove it. Why Passover? Maybe it’s because so many of us have sat through stultifying, rote Seders and yearn for something better. Maybe it’s because Passover is the most do-it-yourself of holidays; with no rabbi to tell you when to turn the page, a good, annotated Haggadah becomes an invaluable guide. Or maybe it’s because of the Passover story itself, a meta-narrative that is loaded with symbols, in which telling the tale is as important as what the tale tells.Read More

Fussing on the Cliff

By Jake Marmer

A few years ago, following a John Zorn concert, I was standing outside, chatting with an acquaintance about the phenomenon of the Jewish avant-garde. Suddenly, a man of a certain age, with a strong Brooklyn accent, barged in: “Jewish avant-garde?” he said. “Excuse me, but that is simply excessive. Merely being Jewish already puts you far out there, at the frontier.”Read More

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