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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Books
An Actor Who Broke a Leg — or Two
From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor By Alexander Granach, with a new introduction by Herbert S. Lewis Transaction Publishers, 304 pages, $29.95 Actor Alexander Granach performed in Yiddish as a member of Berlin’s Jacob Gordin Theatrical Society early in the past century. He went from his shtetl in Galicia…
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Books Reading and Thinking About Books
On Monday, Tom Fields-Meyer took a look at autism and God. His 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: EachSaturday morning, I ask my son Ezra the same question. As our…
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Pauline Kael Left Jewish Imprint on Criticism
Can anyone love a professional critic? Perhaps not, but film critic Pauline Kael, who died on September 3, 2001, is receiving a stream of new tributes. The 10th anniversary of her demise was commemorated by three books that treat her life and work with awe, and sometimes with shock. “The Age of Movies: Selected Writings…
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Strange Tale of Hitler’s Jewish Psychic
The Nazi Séance: The Strange Story of the Jewish Psychic in Hitler’s Circle By Arthur Magida Palgrave Macmillan, 288 pages, $26 Where else but in the annals of Jewish history does a boy born to a pair of impoverished runaways become a world-famous mind reader, psychic, astrologer, crime fighter, newspaper publisher, novelist and, if that’s…
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Books Autism and God
Tom Fields-Meyer is the author of “Following Ezra,” a memoir about learning from his autistic son. His 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: I was a guest on a radio…
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Three Foundations Will Leave Huge Gap
Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies , the Avi Chai Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and winding down their giving
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Film & TV Female Haredi Filmmakers Struggle To Make Movies
Secular Israeli documentary filmmaker Efrat Shalom Danon made “The Dreamers” as a way to better understand her sister and a close friend — both of whom are artists who became Haredi. She wanted to better grasp the conflicts these women live with in trying to express themselves creatively while operating within the strict confines of…
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Books Writer Seeks Funding for New Book
‘Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!” wrote Herman Melville in “Moby Dick.” In other words, writing is an endurance test, and it can drive you mad. And if it was problematic for him, imagine how the rest of us feel. Unlike whaling, this is something I understand from experience. I’m no Melville, but I have…
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Ten Young Jews, Making a Difference
In September, the Forward asked readers to nominate Jews, age 21 and younger, who are working to make a difference locally or globally. The responses both surprised and inspired us; we found a boundless breadth of activism among this mature-beyond-their-years cohort. Although these young people are operating with limited resources, their global consciousness — not…
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Camille Pissarro’s Full Life on Display
Renowned as an Impressionist painter of landscapes, less widely known as a Jew and an anarchist, Camille Pissarro (1830 –1903) made his debut as a figure painter in 1882. Almost 140 years later, his splendid portraits of French peasants, outdoor market crowds, domestic servants and his own family can be seen at San Francisco’s Legion…
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Tougher Task for Israel Fundraisers
The late Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek looms large in the mind of just about every fundraiser for an Israeli organization. This is especially so for Neal Levy, who worked for Kollek two decades ago at the Jerusalem Foundation, the nonprofit founded by the mayor to improve the quality of life for residents of his city….
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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Yiddish שפּילן מיט פֿײַל־און־בויגן און אַנדערע ל״ג־בעומר־מנהגיםPlaying with bows and arrows and other Lag BaOmer shtetl customs
געוויסע עקספּערטן האַלטן, אַז מע דאַרף באַטראַכטן ל״ג־בעומר ווי אַ פֿרילינגדיקן מײַ־פֿעסטיוואַל
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News ‘Don’t give up on us now’: Israel peace summit convenes thousands to aim for elusive progress
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Fast Forward A GOP lawmaker tried to put a Holocaust denier on New Hampshire’s Holocaust education board