Andrew Muchin
By Andrew Muchin
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Food Tales from the Jewish Heartland
I’ve been fressing in the Midwest more or less continuously since 1958. I grew up in a kosher home in Manitowoc, WI, population 33,000, with an active Orthodox-ish congregation of about 50 families. When I was a preschooler, my Grandma Mamie Muchin used to shlep me to visit the local shochet, who kept chickens in…
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News Two Jewish Guys and an Arkansas Christmas Ritual
You don’t need flashing reindeer lawn ornaments to tell you it’s the happiest time of the year in Arkansas’s capital. Simply tune into FM 89 KUAR in December for the “Jewish Guys’ Chanukah Special,” with co-hosts Phil Kaplan and Leslie Singer. The 60-minute annual shtick-and-music show, which is broadcast annually on the local public radio…
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News A Final Yom Kippur in the Delta for Mississippi Community Begun in 1830s
As the members of Temple Beth El in Lexington, Miss., pray this Yom Kippur for inclusion in the Book of Life, they’ll be attending a funeral of sorts. The Ne’ilah, the day’s traditional closing service, will be the last scheduled worship to be held in their 104-year-old white wooden synagogue. “Our last regular service had…
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News ‘Rabbi’ of Rumba
Before the Hip Hop Hoodios or the long-defunct Tijuana Brass added Latin rhythms to Yiddishe melodies, there was Irving Fields. The pianist who composed the 1946 hit “Miami Beach Rhumba” created the Latin-Jewish genre with the 1959 LP “Bagels and Bongos.” Fields, who turns 92 on August 4, is still at it. “My Yiddishe Mama’s…
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News Pioneers in the Black Hills
It’s doubtful that Calamity Jane loved Wild Bill Hickock as much as local lore alleges, but there’s no disputing that the tomboy gunslinger bought groceries from Jacob Goldberg on Main Street. The proof is neatly written in an 1895 ledger from “J. Goldberg, Dealer in Groceries, Provisions and Produce,” on display downtown at the Adams…
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News The Demise of a Small-town Business
Shlepping armloads of trousers to an empty rack, his face set with determination and a hint of joy, Steve Felix was working till the bittersweet end of Felix’s, his 101-year-old clothing store in this town of 4,500. On a recent Thursday, men’s and women’s fine clothing was selling at prices not seen since Steve’s grandfather,…
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News Jazzman Strikes a Chord at Community Programs
He has hung out with Dizzy Gillespie, played piano with the Rolling Stones, written three books, hosted national radio and television shows, co-run a jazz record label, produced albums by top jazz and pop performers and composed a Grammy-nominated film score. But what’s tickling Ben Sidran’s ivories these days is the Ben Minkoff Volunteer Service…
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News Campy Record: Reform Youth Group Compiles Five CDs of Singalongs
Back when the times they were a changin’, Reform Judaism stood at society’s political and social vanguard. Yet the movement’s religious framework remained 19th-century classical Reform — an attempt to achieve a more rational, modern Judaism by emphasizing decorum over fervor and eschewing many traditional rituals and customs. The approach bored young congregants immersed in…
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