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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What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Eldad Ganin would like an explanation. He writes: “In Hebrew we have a clear pattern. If the name of a country ends, as many such names do in Hebrew, with –ya, the names of the country’s people and language follow automatically. Thus, rusya, ‘Russia,’ rusi, ‘Russian [person],’ rusit, ‘Russian [language]’; angliya, ‘England,’ angli, ‘Englishman,’ anglit,…
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A Profane Reliquary
Saul Bellow, Letters Edited by Benjamin Taylor Viking, 608 pages, $35 Why not simply admit it? The new collection of Saul Bellow’s “Letters” (Viking 2010) is a modern reliquary. It is a treasured remnant of the beloved wonderworker. And who are the followers, the faithful? Bookish cranks, mainly, plus unstoppable line-quoters, Jewish lit fetishists, passionate…
The Latest
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November 5, 2010
100 Years Ago in the forward In one of the city?s parks, alongside the naked trees, I walk. Only the autumn winds and me. The old park watchman trundles along slowly, broom in hand, sweeping away the memories of summer. I step on acres of dry leaves, crackling under my steps. Are they speaking? Are…
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Books Misreading Claude Lévi-Strauss the Man
After the well-deserved hosannas of praise for the centenary, and subsequent dignified mourning for the demise, of the great French Jewish anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, a backlash seemed inevitable. On October 7, “Claude Lévi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory,” by Patrick Wilcken, presented as the “definitive account of the life, work, and legacy,” was published by…
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October 29, 2010
100 Years Ago in the forward When Joseph Prager broke into the Beyz Yankev Synagogue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn at dawn, he didn’t anticipate any resistance. After breaking a cellar window, Prager stole whatever he could, putting everything in a large sack. But Rabbi Rabinovitz and his shamus, Samuel Press, caught him in…
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Gaza, The Wright Way
Lawrence Wright, the renowned author and longtime staff member of The New Yorker, seems surprisingly fragile standing alone onstage in New York City’s 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center. Considering he is about to take a long, hard look at the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially as it pertains to Gaza, one can forgive…
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Separate Universes Coexisting: Chaya Czernowin’s Musical Artistry
Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin, long admired in select contemporary music circles, is now winning wider acclaim both demographically and geographically for her ardent, finely honed works. Czernowin’s chamber music in particular has won kudos, as a flurry of upcoming international performances by diverse hands proves. Over the next six months, Czernowin’s work will be performed…
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Oath of Loyalty to What?
If Israel had Words of the Month, October’s would be “Jewish,” as in “a Jewish and democratic state,” or medina yehudit ve’demokratit, in Hebrew. This is what — if a controversial cabinet decision is adopted as law by the Knesset — anyone becoming an Israeli citizen will have to swear loyalty to. The many criticisms…
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Nicole Krauss’s Desk and Its Clutter
Great House By Nicole Krauss W.W. Norton & Company, 289 pages, $24.95 It is a great desk — an enormous, ornate escritoire equipped with 19 drawers — rather than a “Great House” that connects the characters in Nicole Krauss’s ambitious third novel, following “Man Walks Into a Room” (2002) and “The History of Love” (2008)….
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One Nation, Under Various Divinities
Listen to certain sections of the body politic today, and you get the impression that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were part-time — if not full-time — evangelicals. Not so, say s Marilyn Mellowes, who spent the better part of the past several years grappling with what she calls “the intersection of religion…
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Steering Between God And Reason In America
Is America a “Christian” nation? Or is it a secular nation, subject to Jefferson’s “wall of separation” between church and state? For many Americans, these are the central questions about the role of religion in public life. But the assumptions behind both questions reveal a certain ignorance. The story of America is not some fantasy…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
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Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
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Culture Is ‘Andor’ about Jews, Palestinians — or both and/or neither?
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Fast Forward Judge dismisses lawsuit against Zionist Organization of America leader Mort Klein
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Fast Forward US reaches truce with Houthis hours after Israel bombs their airport in Yemen
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Fast Forward Trump says only 21 hostages remain alive in Gaza: ‘3 have died’
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