Born in in 1910, my grandmother Rachela Pupko Krinsky Melezin was a Vilner through and through. When I told her, during college, that I was becoming vegetarian — that the days of devouring her kreplach and piroshki were over — she took it as most Jewish grandmothers would. I wish I could have directed her…
When one thinks of Judd Apatow, books aren’t the first thing that come to mind. Bro-medies? Sure. Seth Rogen? Definitely. Weed? Duh. But books? And yet, the man behind “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up” apparently owns a lot of books. As he recently told : “I have actually convinced myself that buying books is the…
The Sapir Prize for Hebrew Literature is one of Israel’s most important literary awards, and the most significant financially. Recently, the managing board of the prize decided to change its guidelines and enable only candidates who are residents of Israel to submit their work. This new rule caused an interesting and important debate, both in…
The details on hundreds of letters, books, magazine articles, reports and other materials found in Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden’s secret compound in Pakistan were declassified and released by the Obama administration. Among the documents released, which were taken from bin Laden’s compound by Navy SEALS after it was seized in May 2011, is an…
Catch the Jew! By Tuvia Tenenbom Gefen Publishing House, 484 pages, $24.95 Liberal Jews chagrined at the recent elections in Israel probably should read Tuvia Tenenbom’s “Catch the Jew.” Tenenbom’s book, in which he narrates his travels and conversations in Israel and the West Bank, will not provide comfort. In fact, he holds leftist Jews…
The greatest collection of rare Jewish historical documents in the United States will be boxed up later this year and put into storage until at least 2018, the Forward has learned. The library at Manhattan’s Jewish Theological Seminary — Conservative Judaism’s largest rabbinic seminary — holds the most impressive compilation of Jewish historical materials outside…
This is an occasional column in which the writer evaluates a cookbook by making some of its recipes, sharing the dishes with friends and asking those friends what they think of the results. For Passover, the writer cooked her way through “Modern Jewish Cooking: Recipes & Customs for Today’s Kitchen,” by Forward writer and contributing…
Photograph by Sang An With all due respect to the classic pairing of beets and goat cheese, there are other ways to serve cooked beets! Take this salad, which tosses them with preserved lemon, fennel, basil and capers. The lemon and capers act as a tangy counterpart to the sweet Mediterranean root, and the fresh…
Sami Rohr Prize winner Ayelet Tsabari / Elsin Davidi Ayelet Tsabari, author of the short story collection “The Best Place On Earth” (HarperCollins 2013), has won the prestigious Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature — and I couldn’t be happier about it. A couple of months ago, I issued one of those pre-New-Year’s calls for…
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday addressed the clash over the Israel Prize for Literature and the makeup of the panel that awards it by saying that more extremist, anti-Zionist judges have been appointed in recent years. “The composition of the panel that selects Israel Prize laureates must be balanced and faithfully reflect the…
Becoming Un-Orthodox By Lynn Davidman Oxford University Press, 272 pages, $27.95 In “Becoming Un-Orthodox,” a study of ex-Orthodox Jews by University of Kansas professor Lynn Davidman, a woman identified only as “Leah” describes Friday night meals in her parents’ home. “Shabbes was kind of a wash,” she says. “My father was always tired and so…
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