Articles written collectively by the Forward’s staff.
Forward Staff
By Forward Staff
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Fast Forward Jewish Naval Midshipman Among Dead in Amtrak Crash
Justin Zemser, a 20-year-old Jewish midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, was one of at least seven passengers killed in a deadly Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. “He was the most wonderful kid,” Zemser’s mother, Susan Zemser, told reporters, according to the Daily News. Zemser, who grew up in Rockaway Beach, New York, was…
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Culture Of Calamity Jane. Mount Rushmore and 5 Other Things Facts About Jewish South Dakota
1) 345 Jews live in South Dakota, the smallest Jewish population in any state of the union. 2) South Dakota is the only state without a Chabad presence. 3) Mt. Zion, founded in 1903 in Sioux Falls, is the state’s oldest congregation. 4) Blanche Colman was the first female lawyer to practice in the state….
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Fast Forward Boxer Manny Pacquiao ‘Loves the Jews,’ Has ‘Mezuzah on Every Door’
Boxer Manny Pacquiao may be looking to get the Tribe behind him as he heads into his fight of the century against Floyd Mayweather Jr. The Filipino fighter has visited Israel several times and speaks warmly of his relationship with Jews, promoter Bob Arum says in a new interview on the eve of the bout…
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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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