Articles written collectively by the Forward’s staff.
Forward Staff
By Forward Staff
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The Schmooze How Do You Say ‘Uppercut’ in Yiddish?
A version of this post appeared in Yiddish . According to the usual stereotype, Jews don’t know how to fight. In fact, Jews have been quite adept at defending themselves, and there is even a rich Yiddish vocabulary to describe how it’s done. A new exhibit, “Yiddish Fight Club,” opening April 30 at the YIVO…
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Culture Of Stephen Sondheim, the Marx Brothers and 12 Other Things About (Jewish) Pennsylvania
1) 293,240 Jews live in Pennsylvania. 2) One of the most prominent early Jewish residents of Pennsylvania was Isaac Miranda, who emigrated From France in 1712 and became Lancaster’s first Jewish resident. A businessman and Indian trader, he had a large collection of Jewish books. 3) Pennsylvania’s oldest synagogue is Congregation Mikveh Israel, founded in…
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Culture Benjamin Harshav, Literary Scholar and Translator, Dies at 86
Benjamin Harshav, a translator, poet and scholar of Hebrew and Yiddish literature, died April 23 in New Haven, Connecticut. He was 86. Harshav was a mentor to generations of students and, together with his wife Barbara Harshav, a prolific translator of Yiddish and Hebrew poetry. Harshav also translated Yiddish and German literature into Hebrew, and…
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Culture 10 Things About (Jewish) Arizona
1) 106,300 Jews live in Arizona. 2) Arizona’s first known Jewish resident was Dr. Herman Bendell who, in 1870, was nominated to be the state’s first Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 3) Since there were few women in the Arizona territory, early Jewish settlers traveled elsewhere to find wives. In 1884, 21 of these brides founded…
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Culture Of Neiman Marcus, Kinky Friedman and 12 Other Things About (Jewish) Texas
1) 158,505 Jews live in Texas. 2) The state’s first Jewish cemetery was established in Galveston in 1852. 3) Texas’s first Jewish congregation, Congregation Beth Israel, was founded in Houston in 1859. 4) Abraham Neiman and Stanley Marcus founded the Neiman Marcus department store in Dallas in 1907. 5) Olga Bernstein Kohlberg opened Texas’s first…
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Culture Where We’re Going This Summer
Oxford, England When my youngest daughter began working on a master’s degree at Oxford University last fall, she became the seventh generation of women in my family to live for an extended period in England. So my husband and I will take a long weekend in June and make a pilgrimage of sorts, back to…
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Fast Forward Americans Back President Obama on Iran Nuclear Deal by 2-1 Margin
Americans back President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran although many remain undecided on the landmark agreement, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday. The survey showed 36% of Americans favor the deal and 18% oppose it, while 46% remain undecided. “The 2-1 margin is quite significant, even though at this early stage many people have not…
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Culture Of Joe Biden, the Heimlich Maneuver and 8 Other Facts About (Jewish) Delaware
1) 15,100 Jews live in Delaware. 2) Former Delaware Senator and current vice-president Joe Biden ran afoul of the Anti-Defamation League in September, 2014, for using the term “Shylocks” to refer to people who engage in nefarious business practices. 3) In 1971, businessman Irving Shapiro became the first person outside of the Dupont family to…
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