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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November 21, 2008
100 Years Ago in the Forward A massive fire broke out in Beth Elohim, a Reform synagogue on Kip Street in Brooklyn. Joseph Dresher, the synagogue’s next-door neighbor, discovered the blaze. He alerted the shames (synagogue caretaker), who, upon opening the door, saw the entire eastern wall of the synagogue engulfed in flames. It took…
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Evangelical Tours of Israel!
Comics Rescued From a Burning Synagogue in Bialystok and Hidden in a Salt Mine Until After the War. Click on the thumbnail to the right for a larger version: Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His comics, which are frequently published in Jewcy, can be seen at his Web site at www.evcomics.com.
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Claude of the Jungle
On November 28, the centenary of the legendary French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss will be fêted in Paris. As a centenary celebration of a legend, however, it is rather unusual, as the birthday boy is very much alive and well. Born in 1908 to a French-Jewish family — his grandfather served as a rabbi in Versailles…
The Latest
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Israeli Film: All Grown Up and Leaving Home
With Israel’s 60th anniversary as its theme, the 23rd annual Israel Film Festival is an opportunity to reflect on life in a country that is ever shadowed by its military and political contexts. Opening in New York on October 29, and running till November 13 at the Clearview Cinemas, the event presents more than 30…
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Poets of the Desert and the Sea
The Bad Wife Handbook By Rachel Zucker Wesleyan University Press, 114 pages, $22.95. Practice By Dan Bellm Sixteen Rivers Press, 80 pages, $15. Reviewing books in tandem has a lot to do with timing. Sometimes, two volumes appear with almost identical themes — a natural pairing. Other times, certain books suggest an immediate contrast, again…
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A New Take on ‘Old Days’
Retirees like to go to the movies, but you wouldn’t know it from the offerings at the local Cineplex. Hollywood continues to aim hits like “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man” at the desirable 15 to 35 age group, without giving much thought to mature audiences. While older moviegoers still may enjoy an action flick…
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When Jews Go Bad
The Jews of Sing Sing: Gotham Gangsters and Gonuvim By Ron Arons Barricade Books, 350 pages, $22.95. Sometimes it’s the little, everyday things that help you understand the big picture. You want to know what life was like as a Jewish gangster in 20th-century America? Ron Arons’s disjointed yet informative book, “The Jews of Sing…
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A Toast a Tish and a Tu B’Shvat
Now that elections have been held in America, we have them to look forward to in Israel. They will take place February 10, despite the attempt of Knesset member Ya’akov Litzman, the parliamentary head of the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Yisra’el party, to postpone them. Why? Because this year, the 10th of February comes out on the…
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November 14, 2008
100 Years Ago in the Forward In response to a query about the religious views of president-in-waiting William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, the outgoing president, has declared that a president’s religious orientation should not play a role in his ability to perform his duties. The query noted that Taft is a Unitarian and alleged that…
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The Goldblum Variations: Star Turn Charts a Troubled Survivor’s Journey From Hell to Health
Nearly 15 years after the release of “Schindler’s List” the Holocaust continues to figure prominently as a subject for the movies. The latest one, which had its official premiere at the recent Toronto International Film Festival, after a sneak peek at the prestigious Telluride film festival, is “Adam Resurrected.” The film, a drama set in…
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When Pushke Came To Shove
Let’s give credit where credit is due. American Jews happen to be an unusually inventive lot, especially when it comes to thinking up new forms of charitable giving. From the Kol Nidre appeal to UJA’s Super Sunday and from bingo nights at the local temple to online auctions, they have managed to redefine and contemporize…
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