Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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February 4, 2011
100 Years Ago in the Forward New York and environs have been rocked by what initially was thought to be a massive earthquake but turned out to be an explosion on a ship docked off New Jersey that was laden with dynamite. At least two dozen people were killed, and more than 200 wounded, in…
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Books Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq Stoke Their Egos and Bore Their Readers
“Public Enemies,” far from being the “duel” suggested by the book’s subtitle, is in fact an act of mutual masturbation by two of France’s leading luminaries, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq (pronounced Wellbeck). In the book-length series of letters, the friends encourage each other to indulge in self-reflection. They talk about their fathers. They spar…
The Latest
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Facts and Figures
Since the early 20th century, the American Jewish community has placed its faith in numbers — in data and statistics. Where words and images could be manipulated, numbers, it seemed, were unassailable and steadfast. They told the truth. They held society accountable. Little wonder, then, that so many American Jews were dismayed by the recent…
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Was Sarah Palin Actually Blood Libeled?
Did Sarah Palin have justification for calling the accusations that she was responsible, by dint of her rhetoric, for the attempted murder of Gabrielle Giffords and for the deaths of six other people a “blood libel”? Not, of course, if you think Palin can’t say anything right. Nor, it would seem, if you are defending…
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Books What Jews Can Learn From Christian Writer Reynolds Price
Durham, N.C. is not an easy place to be a non-conformist. It is the home of Duke University, notorious for its male lacrosse team’s behaving badly and its “Cameron Crazies,” obsessed basketball fans. Even in January 2011, when the Durham public schools need to make up a snow day, school is scheduled for Saturday, Jewish…
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The Escape Artist.
During his life, American modernist painter Philip Guston’s artistic styles ranged from 1930s social realism to 1950s–60s Abstract Expressionism to his deceptively simple-looking last style, which has often been reductively described as cartoonlike. Despite being written off by such high-profile critics as Robert Hughes and Hilton Kramer, Guston’s work has endured. And even though the…
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Books Mark Twain, “Mishpocha,” and Me
In her previous posts, Erika Dreifus blogged on her upcoming panel at AWP, “Beyond Bagels and Lox,” and the inspiration for “Quiet Americans.” Her 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…
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The Right To Return to a Home
When Washington, D.C.’s Theater J announced that its season featured a play based on a story from a Palestinian author with ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, it raised hackles within segments of the D.C. metropolitan Jewish community. The work, “Return to Haifa,” arrived from Tel Aviv on January 15 for…
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Portrait of the Writer as a Young Painter
In 2007, I conducted a highly unscientific poll of Israeli readers. I was in the Jewish state on a research fellowship, but official business soon gave way to much unofficial business, which included long conversations about Hebrew culture over large amounts of excellent coffee. My poll consisted of a single question: Who is your favorite…
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A Year of Revolutionary Nigunim
The nigun, a wordless spiritual folk melody, is one of the great achievements of Jewish aesthetic expression. I grew up hearing nigunim at the family table on the Sabbath and holidays with my grandfather and my cousins. We sang a continuous stream of melodies, one flowing into the next, for what felt like hours. As…
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Elephants of Khartoum
Zvi Rabbie writes from Los Gatos, Calif., to ask: “With the impending partition of Sudan in the news lately, it would be interesting if you could address the multiple uses of the Hebrew word ḥartom. Besides resembling Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, it’s the word used in the Book of Exodus for Pharaoh’s magicians, while it also…
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