Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel
By Anne Cohen and Sigal Samuel
-
Culture On Elvis Presley’s 85th birthday, a story of his brush with Jewishness
Editor’s Note: This story ran in 2014 as part of the Forward’s “Our Promised Lands” series. We’re re-revisiting it today in honor of what would have been Elvis Presley’s 85th birthdayt. In the summer of 1954, Elvis Presley released his first single. He had one problem: He couldn’t play it. The aspiring 19-year-old singer was…
-
Culture The Walmart Jews
Bentonville, Arkansas — Walmart’s hometown — offers more than just low, low prices. It’s also an anomaly in the small-town South: a Jewish community that is actually growing. Since 2004, when a handful of families met in a suburban home to discuss the possibility of founding a synagogue, Walmart has attracted both Jewish corporate employees…
-
Opinion In France, a Jew and a Muslim Mourn Together
Rabbi Benjamin Hattab and Latifa Ibn Ziaten / France 2 screenshot Since the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris, we’ve been hearing a lot about rising Muslim anti-Semitism and the precarious situation of Jews in France. But amidst all the fear, there was a moment of true connection when a…
-
Culture The Minivan Rabbi of Mississippi
Most rabbis wait for Jews to come to them. Rabbi Jeremy Simons goes to the Jews. As the new itinerant rabbi for the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, Simons drives through 13 states, serving 110 congregations from Oklahoma to Virginia. When we met with him in his office at the ISJL, a squat brown building…
-
Opinion 9 Sephardi Dishes That Won’t Make Buzzfeed Gag
If your signature dish can be mistaken for cat food, you’ve got a problem. Or that’s what Buzzfeed’s most recent experiment would have you believe. They got “random people” (aka non-Jews) to try classic Jewish foods for the first time and recorded their reactions. The response to gefilte fish? Gag. To kugel? Gag. To matzo…
-
Culture How Elvis Presley Missed His True Calling — As a Cantor
In the summer of 1954, Elvis Presley released his first single. He had one problem: He couldn’t play it. The aspiring 19-year-old singer was living with his parents at 462 Alabama Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. With rent at $50 a month, his family was too poor to afford a record player. So, as he often…
-
Culture You Can Pay Jews To Live in Dothan, Alabama. But Will They Stay?
Saturday night is bowling night for the Jews of Dothan, Alabama. On a hot night in July, four families braved the torrential rain and gathered for the monthly meeting of the “Mitzvah League,” the town’s Jewish bowling team. Dothan Lanes is a non-descript, squat, faded building on the side of Montgomery Highway. Even the sign…
-
Opinion From Shul to Shrimp in New Orleans
The French Quarter in New Orleans. We spent the last night of our road trip through the Jewish South in New Orleans — not really part of the South at all. The Big Easy is more like the northern extension of the Caribbean. And its Jewish life reflects that. The pattern we saw here differed…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News No Jews allowed: White supremacists are building a segregated community in Arkansas, but is it legal?
- 2
News Zohran Mamdani has represented Astoria’s Jews for 4 years. What do they think of him?
- 3
News Curtis Sliwa has a plan to beat Zohran Mamdani in NYC mayor’s race — and it starts with apologizing to Jews
- 4
Culture Barbra Streisand’s brand-new duet with Bob Dylan is a whole lot different than you might think
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Right-wing insurrectionists tried to topple the German government in 1920 — it’s happening again in Trump’s America
-
Theater Can a kinky new Yiddish musical resurrect a lost art — and one man who got spanked to death?
-
Fast Forward Josh Shapiro’s Judaism was not why Kamala Harris snubbed him, new book claims
-
Yiddish דאָקטוירים פֿון אַן אַנדער שניטDoctors of a different sort
די ווילנער דאָקטוירים יעקבֿ וויגאָדסקי און צמח שאַבאַד זענען אויך געווען געזעלשאַפֿטלעכע טוער.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
