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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December 9, 2005
100 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD In response to the rash of pogroms that has occurred in the wake of the current upheaval in Russia, a massive march of sorrow was held in New York this week in order to bring attention to the plight of Russia’s Jews. Braving freezing temperatures, hundreds of thousands came…
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Berlin Wrestles With the Jewish Culture it Banished
Out of the rubble of the First World War emerged a mythic culture in Berlin: modern and erotic, brimming with arts and ideas; a city that attracted writers, actors, painters and musicians to its aura of progress and creativity. That’s half the picture. The other half is the Depression, National Socialism and antisemitism that hung…
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From ‘The World To Come’
Each month, in coordination with our reading series in New York, the Forward publishes an excerpt from the work of that month’s series guest or guests. This month, we will feature readings by Dara Horn and Aviya Kushner (for full details, please see sidebar). Below, please find an excerpt from Horn’s new novel, “The World…
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The Sacred and the Profane
Like her prize-winning debut novel, “In the Image” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2002), Dara Horn’s remarkable second work spans generations, continents and languages. “The World To Come,” which will be published in January 2006 by W.W. Norton, centers on former child prodigy Ben Ziskind and his twin sister, Sara, who live, love, mourn and…
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Writing New Texts in an Ancient Land
A number of years ago, when I was still an aimless, lovesick student, I traveled to Israel for the first time — not so much to fulfill a great Zionist dream that had suddenly surfaced from the depths of my subconscious, but to escape the drab reality of my bar-hopping downtown existence, to escape a…
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Fragmented Memories
Throughout her childhood, Deborah Damast heard bits and pieces of stories about her father’s escape from Krakow, Poland, before the Nazi invasion. As a choreographer, she felt that there was an important statement in dance to be gleaned from that material, but she didn’t want to exploit anyone else’s experience. The brutal assault of 9/11…
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Like Father, Like Son
Dr. Haran: So, how are things? Jacob: It’s been a good week. Dr. Haran: Why do you say that? Jacob: I finally left my father-in-law’s house. It was a big step. Dr. Haran: How come? Jacob: What’s the big riddle? After two decades of letting Laban walk all over me, I finally let him have…
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December 2, 2005
100 YEARS AGO IN THE FORWARD Manhattan’s Lower East Side residents Rebecca Sadowsky, Sarah Leshinsky, Beka Rosenberg and Otto Levsky, who range in age from 9 to 14, appeared this week in the Essex Market Court, accompanied by their parents. All four children had been arrested for truancy, and records indicated that they had not…
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One Man Chronicles Centuries of Synagogue Music
Appearances can be deceiving, especially online. For example, one would never guess from its plain vanilla Web site that Google is a hyper-capitalized behemoth worth more than General Motors and Ford put together. Conversely, the Web site of the Jewish Music Heritage Project gives the impression of a lavishly funded institutional undertaking. Dedicated to providing…
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Shmatte Chic
When Mamie Eisenhower prepared to take her place beside husband Dwight D. Eisenhower at his 1953 presidential inauguration, the notoriously fashion-conscious first lady knew exactly where to go for her outfit: Her ballgown was designed by Nettie Rosenstein, the Jewish designer who popularized the “little black dress” in the 1920s and ’30s, and her handbag…
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Beyond Bubbeleh: Reading Real Yiddish
These days, books about Yiddish have been hamming it up for the mainstreamers. A slew of new books have arrived to decode the cultural essence of the language of Ashkenazic Jewry for an audience of non-Jews and Jews (both of whom appear equally innocent of Yiddish these days). “Yiddish With Dick and Jane” is only…
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