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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Je t’aime, Ahbal
When, early in November, Ofer Eini, head of the Histadrut, Israel’s national trade union, publicly called defense minister Ehud Barak an ahbal for illegally employing a Filipino housekeeper without proper work papers, he was using a word you won’t find in standard Hebrew dictionaries. You’ll find it in Arabic ones, though — and in Israeli…
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Teaching Poetry No Longer
The Poetry Lesson By Andrei Codrescu Princeton University Press, 128 pages, $19.95. Creative writing programs over the past half-century have endorsed the maxim “Write what you know,” so why don’t we have more novels about creative writing programs? Departmental meetings, thesis advisories, workshop tensions, suicidal poets, deferred student loans — the material is ripe for…
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Brother and Sister
This is the story of a brother and sister, Russian immigrants, who arrived at Ellis Island almost 90 years ago, knowing no English. Decades later, I, the brother, was invited back to Ellis Island as a composer of an anthem celebrating the immigrant experience, while my sister excelled in English and became a famous novelist….
The Latest
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How Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Music Survived Dictators
There are few more intense pleasures for music lovers than to see a long-underrated composer finally receiving a deserved place in the sun. Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Russian composer of Polish-Jewish origin who died in 1996, has long flown under the radar as one of the most accomplished of modern composers. Usually lost in the shadow…
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‘Oh Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel’
Mickey Langsfeld has a collection that will make your head spin. The retired dentist from Merion, Pa., has been collecting those lovable, four-sided Hanukkah toys that delight children and adults alike: dreidels. Menorahs tend to get the lion’s share of attention during the Festival of Lights, which this year begins at sunset on December 1….
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November 26, 2010
100 Years Ago in the forward Two Jewish businessmen, Morris Taub and Louis Brown, were sent up to Sing Sing Prison six months ago after they were convicted of cooking the books of their cotton goods company so that they could get more money out of their creditors. After being found guilty of perjury in…
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Books Making a Mess of Comedy
Comedy, explained Aristotle, has a vague history, because at first no one took it seriously. We cannot know for certain if Aristotle was deadpanning, but his observation would amuse Saul Austerlitz. According to Austerlitz, American film comedy has not been taken seriously, either. In fact, the author quips, it is American film’s “bastard stepchild.” With…
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Purposes to All in Tents
The Other Israel Film Festival, which runs from November 11 to November 21, offers a self-proclaimed “fresh take on Israel’s diverse communities.” Its films are meant to explore less-traveled narrative roads, specifically those dealing with minority populations in Israel, with a focus on Arabs and Palestinians. The festival encompasses a wide range of material, some…
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In Vitro Meat
Virtual Words: Language on the Edge of Science and Technology By Jonathon Keats Oxford University Press (2010), $19.95 According to the eminent seventeenth-century botanist John Parkinson, one of the plants that grew in the Garden of Eden was the vegetable lamb. Also known as the borametz, this creature resembled a young sheep in every important…
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Books 30 Days, 30 Texts: ‘Preparing for the Sabbath’
In celebration of Jewish Book Month, The Arty Semite is partnering with the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) and the Jewish Book Council to present “30 Days, 30 Texts,” a series of reflections by community leaders on the books that influenced their Jewish journeys. Today, Shifra Bronznick writes about “Preparing for the Sabbath”…
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Books 30 Days, 30 Texts: The Talmud
In celebration of Jewish Book Month, The Arty Semite is partnering with the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) and the Jewish Book Council to present “30 Days, 30 Texts,” a series of reflections by community leaders on the books that influenced their Jewish journeys. Today, Adam Stein writes about the Talmud. Is it…
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