Forward.com

A Poet Passes: Stanley Siegelman, 87

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:49:00 EST

Stanley Siegelman was never at a loss for words — and they always rhymed. Over the past decade, Stanley, who died of cancer on April 11 at the age of 87, regaled Forward readers with his light verse, first as a contributor to this newspaper’s “Der Yiddish Vinkl” column, more recently with his online “Siegelmania” column and occasionally on our opinion page.

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My Sundays With Stanley

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:45:00 EST

Toward the end, as he lay dying, pretty much all I wanted to do was make him laugh. I called him every week with a line or a joke or a story he might find funny. I plied him with levity. And laugh he often would. Even so, I suspected that as I tried to humor him, he was actually humoring me. Together, we whistled in the dark.

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Untitled

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 18:42:00 EST

’Twill come, I know, as no surprise. / (I speak, of course, of my demise.) / The signs abound, for all to see: / A curtailed life expectancy.

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Ed Koch, Unabridged

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 23:50:00 EST

In a new installment of Siegelmania, Stanley Siegelman pens a poem about the renaming of New York City’s Queensboro Bridge in honor of the city’s 105th mayor.

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Chicago’s Next Mayor

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:34:00 EST

Chicago has elected former White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel as its next mayor. When Emanuel takes office, he will be the first Jew to lead the city.

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Former Madam Aspires To Be Governor

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:13:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Kristin Davis, a former madam, who once served a three-month jail sentence for prostitution, is running for governor of New York. In a recent debate with fellow gubernatorial contenders, including Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino, Davis advocated for the legalization of marijuana.

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The Restaurant That’s Glatt Treyf

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:37:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Traif. That’s the name of a restaurant located in the heart of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg, not far from the neighborhood’s Hasidic enclave.

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An Ode to ‘Feh’

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:27:00 EST

An expletive beyond compare,/And one which every Jew can share!/We write of feh, a word robust/That’s used to register disgust.

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Photographic Exposure in Israel

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:30:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: A photographer who is famous for taking pictures of voluntarily nude crowds at sites around the world is planning to bring his shtick to Israel. He will stage the event on the shores of the Dead Sea, where naked masses are expected to attend.

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Three Jews, One Bench

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:17:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Elena Kagan has been confirmed by the Senate as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, joining two other Jews in that role. For the first time, three Jews will be serving on the court simultaneously. The other justices are Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

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The Brooklyn Derriere Dispute

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:45:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority removed a vodka ad from buses that travel through Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods after Hasidim complained. The ad showed the backside of a woman clad in a bikini.

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Yiddish Frowns on Gender-Nouns

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 13:37:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Students of Yiddish in universities are taught to treat nouns as either masculine or feminine. But among Hasidim — the foremost speakers of Yiddish today — grammatical gender is largely ignored. Hasidim, for example, use di (“the”) for most nouns without respect to the noun’s gender. (Di has historically been applied only to female nouns, while the equivalent der has been used for male nouns.) As Yiddish scholar Zelda Kahan Newman recently noted in the Forward, a gap has emerged between the Yiddish that is actually spoken among Hasidim and the formal Yiddish taught in universities. She called for more attention to be paid to Yiddish as spoken by Hasidic Jews.

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A Down-to-Earth Dilemma

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:09:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Should gentiles be excluded from burial in Jewish communal cemeteries? The question is being debated among rabbis, some of whom complain that it’s difficult to find cemeteries that will bury intermarried congregants.

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The Cow That Wears a Yarmulke

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 22:36:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: In Shanghai, Jews are eagerly buying kosher milk. The product comes in cartons that carry the drawing of a smiling cow wearing a yarmulke.

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Decline of the Jewish Deli

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:34:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Jewish delis are going out of business nationwide. New York City, which boasted about 5,000 such businesses in the early 1950s, now has approximately two dozen.

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The Debate Over Lox

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:07:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: A group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis are arguing that salmon is not kosher because it may contain harmful parasites. Other rabbis have disagreed.

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Marijuana — Menace or Mitzvah?

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:56:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Jewish groups and religious leaders — from Reform to Orthodox — are increasingly supportive of the medical use of marijuana.

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All-Seeing Airport Security Devices Threaten Jewish Modesty

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:28:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Observant Jews are concerned over the expanding use of whole-body imaging machines for airport security.

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Conservative Rabbis Shape Up

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:50:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: The Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly is urging its 1,600 members to work out on a regular basis.

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The Tiger’s Tale

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:46:00 EST

NEWS ITEM: Golf-champ Tiger Woods has apologized for “transgressions” against his wife and family. He issued this comment after causing an early-morning auto mishap outside his mansion. Meanwhile, new reports of extra-marital affairs continue to circulate.

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