This is the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture where you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music (including of course Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen), film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of…
Culture
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Israeli Modern Dance Goes Global
In Neve Tzedek, the old Yemenite neighborhood of Tel Aviv, sounds of prayer from small synagogues in Ottoman period buildings are almost drowned out by the hubbub from bustling cafes and noisy tourist groups exploring alleyways and passing refurbished buildings outfitted with ground-floor galleries and small shops selling the newest fashions. It’s a surprise, though,…
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Books Q&A: David Shipler on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
It has been 25 years since David K. Shipler published his Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land.” Shipler wrote the book following a five-year stint as Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times. He has also worked for the Times as a reporter in Saigon, Moscow bureau chief…
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Books Sweet and Sour
On Monday, Stanley Ginsberg wrote about the meaning of a Jewish bakery. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series, please visit: In my grandparents’ homes, as in the shtetlakh from whence…
The Latest
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Looking Back: January 6, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward Not long ago, a number of rooms in a hotel in Norfolk, Va., were broken into and thousands of dollars worth of jewelry was stolen. Police fingered one Mendel Rosenthal, who was in possession of some of the stolen goods. After Rosenthal was arrested, his brother, Charles, tried to…
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Books What Is a ‘Jewish Bakery’?
Stanley Ginsberg, a native of Brooklyn, grew up in a close-knit neighborhood where generations lived side by side. He learned to cook and bake from his grandmother, who lived just upstairs in the same apartment building, and has continued cooking and baking ever since. His book, “Inside the Jewish Bakery: Recipes and Memories from the…
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Photographer to ’30s Literary Stars
From James Joyce to Virginia Woolf, camera-shy European writers were captured on film in the 1930s by German Jewish photographer Gisèle Freund. These psychologically revealing images, in vividly tight close-up — as if the viewer were crammed into an elevator next to the great writer — are enough to guarantee Freund, who died in 2000…
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Third Time’s L’Chaim
We can’t seem to get away from l’chaim. At least it’s a happy word. In two previous columns, as you may remember, I spoke of l’chaim as a Jewish toast deriving from the Kiddush, the blessing said before drinking wine on Sabbath eves and holidays; dismissed several explanations offered by readers as to why Jews…
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The 8-Year-Old Girl Who Woke Up Israel
Israel has a new and unlikely national heroine. She is a small, blond, bespectacled Orthodox 8-year-old girl, the daughter of American immigrants who live in Beit Shemesh. Her name is Na’ama Margolese and she was featured in a news broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 about the ongoing Haredi harassment of the girls who attend the…
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The Soulful Kittel: Lit From Within
The Kittel Collection is a series of clothing pieces that explores the different ways clothing is used as a vehicle for meaning and identity within our tradition and literature. The kittel is a simple, white, garment used as a burial shroud, and customarily worn by men on various Jewish holy days. Each month, The Sisterhood…
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Single Malt Scotch for Feminists
The Men’s Section: Orthodox Jewish Men in an Egalitarian World By Elana Maryles Sztokman University Press of New England, 288 pages, $85 A few years ago, a friend announced that he intended to start a “Kiddush club” at our synagogue. “Our shul needs more of a social scene,” he declared, “and some high-quality single malt…
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Gimme Some New Time Religion
The Last Testament: A Memoir by God (with David Javerbaum) By David Javerbaum 381 pages, Simon and Schuster, $23.99 The Final Testament of the Holy Bible By James Frey 398 pages, Gagosian, $50 You can find divine justification for just about anything. One preacher declares that God wants us to be “loving and compassionate,” but…
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