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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Peoplehood: There’s No There There
“We’re here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.” — Kurt Vonnegut In the old days, presumably, it was simple: All Jews belonged to klal yisrael, largely because they didn’t have any choice, and we all knew that we were in this thing together. Some were pious, some quite wicked; some…
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Just Say ‘Nu?’: Old Age
The idea that age alone is enough to make you important is fundamental to traditional Jewish life, and people are always wanting to know how old you are, especially if you’re unmarried. VEE ALT ZENT EER? How old are you? is the standard “secular” way of asking a person’s age. If you’re dealing with much…
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Lost and Found
When I first opened the red leather diary, I had no idea of the world that was about to unfold before me and change the course of my life and that of 90-year-old Florence Wolfson Howitt. When I left my apartment one morning in 2003 and encountered a Dumpster full of old steamer trunks, among…
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Language Arts, or Lack Thereof
Detective Story By Imre Kertész Translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson Knopf, 112 pages, $21. The Pathseeker By Imre Kertész Translated from the Hungarian by Tim Wilkinson Melville House, 130 pages, $13. Born in 1929 in Budapest, Imre Kertész completed his education at the universities of Auschwitz and Buchenwald before working as a journalist…
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An Interview With Alice and Moshe Shalvi
On the occasion of his 57th wedding anniversary, Moshe Shalvi did something a bit unusual: He produced a mammoth digital encyclopedia as a testament to his wife’s work. There are another 1,600-odd remarkable Jewish women who appear in the encyclopedia, but the project is in some significant ways mainly about Alice Shalvi. An Israel Prize…
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April 25, 2008
100 Years Ago in the forward It wasn’t a pogrom; no windows were broken, and no pillows were torn up and emptied. But Jews were getting robbed in Manhattan on Hester and Rivington Streets, and on the streets of Brooklyn. Jewish women were getting the worst of it, fleeced by merchants of all kinds. These…
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A Sweet Passover for All
Forward reader Benzion Ginn is seeking information about the origins of the Yiddish expression a zisn Pesach, “[Have] a sweet Pesach,” as a Passover or pre-Passover greeting. Wondering whether such a greeting is traditional or whether it is rather a modern American invention of “Passover food providers, such as Manischewitz,” Mr. Ginn writes that he…
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Koch on Koch on Antisemitism
“A liberal,” Robert Frost once quipped, “is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.” Ed Koch is not that kind of liberal. The legendary former New York City mayor — who puckishly describes himself as “a liberal with sanity” — has never been shy about standing up for his fellow…
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Film & TV Woody Allen in Eilat?
Israeli news site Y-Net reports that Woody Allen is expected to go to to the Israeli Red Sea resort town of Eilat for its film festival. The thought of the consummate New York nebbish in Eilat brings to mind that scene in “”Annie Hall” of a very uncomfortable Woody Allen in sunny Southern California. I…
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Unterzakhn, Part 7
Read this week’s installment of Leela Corman’s new graphic novel, “Unterzakhn,” which is being serialized in the Forward. (Or, to start at the very beginning, click here). CLICK FOR LARGER VIEW
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Whither Macedonia?
I don’t know how many of you have been following the dispute between Greece and the Republic of Macedonia — or, as it is still officially known by the United Nations, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) — over the name “Macedonia.” The latest installment is the Greek government’s threat to veto FYROM’s acceptance…
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