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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Polishing off Your Delicious Ponchkes
Were pa˛czki, *or ponchkes,* a Hanukkah food in Poland? If they were, why didn’t they become one in America, too? And if they weren’t, why did they become one in Israel? With these questions, last week’s column ended. Let’s start with Question 1. The answer to it is apparently negative. In fact, some of your…
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Slippery Cabaret Art
The quirky New York City venue for Israeli-born artist Ofri Cnaani’s current solo show, “A Tale of Ends,” is apt. Le Poisson Rouge, a dimly lit bar, nightclub and gallery in the downtown space once occupied by the venerable Village Gate, bills itself as “serving art and alcohol.” It announces its off-kilter sensibility just inside…
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February 13, 2009
100 Years Ago In the Forward Jacob Greenfield, the boss of a Manhattan pants maker shop on East Second Street and Fifth Avenue, was arrested for the murder of Solomon Cohen, an employee of his who participated in a strike. A week ago, Cohen was found dead in the shop, with two gunshot wounds to…
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Praising Sacred Places: Richard Howard’s Jewish Roots
For a half-century, the poet, critic, and translator Richard Howard has been an expert investigator of artistic motivations and inspirations, yet his own roots, as a product of Cleveland’s Jewish middle class, have rarely been explored. On Feb 8, Howard will give a reading at New York’s Metropolitan Museum to introduce the new Pierre Bonnard…
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Jew
The young man, who calls himself an artist, looks out to an audience eying him from risers laid along the floor-level stage. He speaks of his reputation without irony. He calls himself a traitor. A self-hater. A blasphemer. His name is Asher Lev, he says, introducing himself by declaiming his legacy. “I am none of…
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The Cup of Liberation
New Jewish Feminism: Probing the Past, Forging the Future Edited by Rabbi Elyse Goldstein Jewish Lights Publishing, 480 pages, $24.99. Our family’s Passover Seders are always large and boisterous, but I wasn’t prepared for the mini-rebellion that occurred a few years ago. Like all good feminists of a certain age, I relished the chance to…
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The Shonda!
Click on the thumbnail for a larger version. Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His comics appear monthly in the Forward, and his Web site is www.evcomics.com.
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Treasure in Cuban Ruins
Ruins By Achy Obejas *Akashic Books, 205 pages, $15.95. * In 1994, more than 100,000 Cubans fled the island on improvised boats, abandoning their homeland, and 35 years of revolution, to seek a better future. Cuban-born poet, journalist, and novelist Achy Obejas sets her new novel, “Ruins,” in Havana during that exodus, but focuses on…
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Polishing Up the Bakery
Leave it to food to bring out the best in you! My appeal three weeks ago for information about ponchkes has so far brought no fewer than 28 responses, and more are still arriving. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far. First, a response from food columnist Mimi Sheraton: “Ponchkes, yes indeed. They are Polish and…
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Not Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos
Three Balconies: Stories and a Novella By Bruce Jay Friedman *Biblioasis, 203 pages, $24.95. * Beginning in the 1960s, Bruce Jay Friedman’s literary star burned hot and bright — acclaimed novels, plays, short stories, screenplays — only to dim after his screenplay for “Splash” was nominated for an Oscar 25 years ago. Although “Even the…
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Honoring Partisans in Captions
‘That’s not Tuvia Bielski — that’s my dad!” Mark Werner thought while reading the Forward’s article “Bielskis vs. Hollywood” in the January 2 issue. Or perhaps he just thought, “Oh no, not again.” In 1964, when the Forward first published the photograph to illustrate an article commemorating Yom HaShoah, there was no documentation about the…
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