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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A Manifesto for the Seventh Day
The millennial institution of the Sabbath is currently experiencing something of a renaissance — or, at the very least, it’s the object of heightened attention — and not just within traditional Jewish circles. Judith Shulevitz’s recent book, “The Sabbath World” (Random House), a richly textured interrogation of its meaning and history, has made the rounds…
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My Jewish-Muslim Father-in-Law
Mahmud Nasir is a Pakistani Muslim whose passion growing up in Britain during the 1980s was for New Romantic music and, to judge by his love of Tottenham Hotspur, football. He is barely observant, and once wrote a letter to the local paper, arguing that fellow Muslims ought to follow the path of moderation. But…
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Etiquette for Schmucks, Schlemiels, Schlimazels and Schmendriks
Last week’s column, a reply to a reader’s query about the Yiddish word mentsh, invoked Michael Wex’s 2009 book, “How To Be a Mentsh (& not a Shmuck).” Today, we return to the second half of Wex’s title, spurred by Paramount Pictures’ announcement of the release, this summer, of a new comedy directed by Jay…
The Latest
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The Right Man in the Wrong Job
Future Tense: Jews, Judaism, and Israel in the Twenty-first Century By Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Schocken Books, 304 pages, $26.95 Another Way, Another Time: Religious Inclusivism and the Sacks Chief Rabbinate By Meir Persoff Academic Studies Press, 450 pages, $65 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, is…
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A Renaissance for Belleville’s Georges Perec, Master of the Lipogram
One of France’s most daring postwar writers, perhaps best known for writing an entire novel without the letter “e” (a lipogram), French-Jewish author Georges Perec, is coming back into vogue. Two of his books were reprinted by publisher David R. Godine last year, and new interest is being taken in his Polish-Jewish roots. Perec, who…
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May 21, 2010
100 Years Ago in The Forward Mass arrests of Jews have been taking place in Kiev. Many of the families that have been cruelly victimized by the czar’s policies have been given only two days to leave the city. Police have been forcing Jews out of Kiev proper and into a number of smaller towns…
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The Ties That Bind, and Set You Free
A suggestive swivel of the hips followed by a sensual rubbing of the stomach and thighs and, suddenly, a blindingly quick backflip thrown in for good measure — all this and much more to shock, tease and delight audiences in Jesse Zaritt’s 36-minute-plus solo, “Binding.” The handsome, muscular Zaritt is presenting his newest work from…
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Books Margaret Atwood Rejects Cultural Boycott of Israel
As we saw with the Batsheva Dance Company in 2009 and the Jerusalem Quartet in March, when it comes to Israel, even the most straightforward arts organizations have the potential to become the subjects of political controversy. The most recent flare-up centered around Canadian author Margaret Atwood, who accepted the Dan David Prize for literature…
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A. B. Yehoshua, Daniel Mendelsohn and an Opportunity at ‘The Lost’
Shortly after college I had a girlfriend who was interested in the profound nature of reality. Among other things, our intimacy, for her, was a platform to investigate with honesty what we thought about existence. Without realizing what was going on, I laughed off these attempts which with hindsight, and even at the time, I…
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Documenting a Sweatshop Cinderella: Q&A with Suzanne Wasserman
The short new documentary, “Sweatshop Cinderella,” captures the fascinating life story of the writer Anzia Yezierska. Best known for her 1925 novel, “Bread Givers,” Yezierska’s incredible life story involved a romance with philosopher John Dewey, as well as a brief stint in Hollywood. The documentary reveals fragments of the only known voice recording of Yezierska,…
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Film & TV ‘Holy Rollers’ and the 10-Minute Bar Mitzvah
In preparation for his upcoming film, “Holy Rollers,” based on actual events in the late 1990s, when members of the Hasidic community were recruited as drug mules, actor Jesse Eisenberg, 26, became a bar mitzvah. The Queens native spent time at the Lubavitch headquarters in Brooklyn. “They asked me if I’d been bar mitzvahed,” he…
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