Mira Fox is a reporter at the Forward. Get in touch at [email protected] or on Twitter @miraefox.
Mira FoxStaff Writer
By Mira Fox
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Culture This traditionally trained scribe is bending the rules — literally
Kalman Delmoor is a classically trained Hebrew scribe, or sofer, who sits in the Yochanan Ben Zakai historic synagogue, one of the Four Sephardi Synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem. But he doesn’t spend his days writing tefillin or mezuzot. Instead, he turns passages from Torah or liturgy into artwork — some colorful, some…
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Culture Is Netflix’s new sprawling fantasy the next ‘Game of Thrones’?
Growing up, I was a voracious reader. But, to my father’s chagrin (“Read some real books!”), it wasn’t Mark Twain or even Judy Blume I gobbled up — it was fantasy. I read Harry Potter, of course, but also obscure books featuring magical knights or shape-shifting girls. As an adult, I have also learned to…
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Culture Is it just me, or are the same actors in every Israeli show?
If you like to binge Israeli television or movies, you may have experienced a blurring phenomenon — not just because that’s a natural side effect of binge watching, but because all the characters look remarkably similar. In many cases, they are; it often feels like Israel has only a handful of actors. Israel is a…
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Opinion Christian morality is why weed isn’t legal yet
It’s 2021, and the U.S. is still struggling to legalize marijuana, a drug with medical properties that is no more dangerous than legal vices such as alcohol and nicotine. Why? Because the U.S. is a Christian country, with a Christian morality. Not that Judaism promotes uncontrolled intoxication — the Bible contains limits and warnings against…
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Culture Christians are enraged by this music video. Why aren’t Jews upset too?
Lil Nas X is an expert at generating controversy. His latest music video, “Montero (Call Me By Your Name),” features him twirling down to Hell on a stripper pole and giving Satan a lapdance before snapping his neck and stealing his crown. For an extra bump of publicity, he also launched 666 retrofitted Nike sneakers,…
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News What does peyote have to do with pandemic minyans?
When I lived in Boston, much of my Jewish life took place in people’s living rooms and kitchens; though I also had a synagogue I loved, most of the young, engaged Jews of Somerville orbited through various monthly gatherings of egalitarian minyans and niggun singing and Shabbat meals. The coronavirus has decimated this aspect of…
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Culture How to say kaddish for Bernie Madoff
When Alicia Jo Rabins wrote “A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff,” she had no idea it would come out the year Bernie Madoff actually died. “Wow. It’s an odd experience to have my phone blowing up because someone I’ve never met died in his 80s!” she said when I emailed her today. Though the kaddish prayer…
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Culture Meet the real-life artist behind the paintings in ‘Shtisel’
Akiva Shtisel, the protagonist of the eponymous series, is a genius artist, and his gorgeous paintings lie at the heart of the show about Haredi life. In the most recent season, his paintings of his deceased wife hold much of the emotional weight of the show, symbolizing Akiva’s grief and his struggle to develop a…
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Yiddish דער קאַפֿע-הױז װי אַ מקום-מקלט פֿאַר ייִדישער קולטורThe cafe as a refuge of Jewish culture
אין די בערלינער קאַפֿע־הײַזער האָט די אינטעליגענץ געשמועסט, געלײענט צײַטונגען און געשפּילן שאַך.
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די שאַפֿער פֿון דער אָפּערע שטעלן זיך פֿאָר די ווירקונג פֿון שפּרינצעס טויט אויף אירע שוועסטער און צייטלס אייניקל.
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