Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine and VICE. He is based in Los Angeles and can be followed on Twitter @thislouis.
Louis Keene
By Louis Keene
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News Intermarriage increasingly leads to Jewish children, Pew study shows
Surveys of the American Jewish population have never failed to elicit panic over intermarriage. In response to the first National Jewish Population Study in 1970, an Intermarriage Crisis Conference convened in New York. Two decades later, after the second NJPS put the intermarriage rate at 52%, some called it a “Second Holocaust.” But a new…
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News High school flunks Jewish Heritage Month, picking Meir Kahane as honoree
It had to be a mistake. Or perhaps some kind of prank? The email from Montclair High School stunned parents in the famously liberal New Jersey enclave Monday afternoon: Its pick to honor for Jewish American Heritage Month was the late ultra-nationalist radical Rabbi Meir Kahane. The “daily announcements” email sent to students, parents and…
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Culture ‘They Own The Media’: New Van Morrison song amplifies antisemitic trope
Legendary singer-songwriter Van Morrison released a new song on streaming platforms Thursday whose title espouses a classic antisemitic trope. The lyrics of the song, “They Own The Media,” never indicate who the pronoun in its title refers to. But Morrison, a two-time Grammy winner, was also accused of antisemitism for the 2005 track “They Sold…
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News ‘His voice was the sound of music:’ An American Hasid lost on Mt. Meron
Rabbi Shragi Gestetner was born to make music. He started composing when he was 12. He sold his first song at 18. His debut album, Shragee, pulsates with the joy of a man who has found his calling. The year after it came out, Tablet called Gestetner one of the “rising talents of the current…
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News Memories of my teenage self at Mount Meron on Lag B’Omer
Within seconds of getting off the bus a bag of chocolate milk came flying at me. I caught it, bit it open, recited the shehakol blessing — that was the point, to make a blessing on this holy ground — and sucked down the whole thing. I looked at my friends in awe: What was…
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News Israeli NBA forward Deni Avdija suffers injury, ending promising rookie season
Israeli NBA rookie Deni Avdija suffered a hairline fracture in his right ankle during a game Wednesday, cutting short his rookie season for the Washington Wizards. Avdija, the ninth overall draft pick in 2020, was coming down from a layup attempt when he awkwardly twisted his ankle. He was wheel-chaired off the floor to an…
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News Emily Grodin typed her first sentence at 25. Now she has her first book.
For the first 25 years of her life, Emily Grodin’s vocabulary was limited to her name and just a couple of words. Then she got a new speech therapy aide — and an iPad that opened floodgates of personal expression. Now Grodin, a 29-year-old with nonverbal autism, and her mother Valerie Gilpeer have written a…
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News ‘It’s a bad time to be great:’ An oral history of Yeshiva University’s historic 36-game win streak
The Yeshiva University Maccabees — universally known as the Macs — are riding a 36-game win streak, tied for the second-longest in NCAA Division III history. The streak spans two seasons (so far), the turnover of nearly half the team’s roster, and of course, the coronavirus pandemic that ended their season abruptly last March and…
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Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
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Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
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Fast Forward Trump attorney general pick Pam Bondi: 5 things Jews should know
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News Israel reached a ceasefire in Lebanon. Why does Gaza seem so hard?
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Culture Barbra Streisand recorded here — and so did Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and, uh, The Village People
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Fast Forward Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to helm EPA, says he received bomb threat with ‘pro-Palestinian themed message’
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Opinion We can be thankful this year — and Jewish wisdom can help
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