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
-
In New Trend, Adult Emigrés Seek Ritual Circumcision
Two years before emigrating from Ekaterinburg, Russia, in 1997, Leonid Marder and his wife, Tamara, began observing the Sabbath. After arriving in America, the retired couple gradually became more devout. But for some time, something didn’t feel quite right. Like many Russian émigrés who adopted Orthodox practices in America, Marder had to take the next…
-
Make Room for Baby
We New Yorkers are givers. By choosing to live in apartments the size of veal pens, and paying so much in monthly rent or mortgage that we could afford an entire herd of veal, we give people who live elsewhere something to feel superior about. You’re welcome. Josie and her possibly-born-by-the-time-you-read-this sister will be sharing…
-
The Return
This is the second in a three-part series on the challenges faced in the United States by immigrants from the former Soviet Union. A year ago, Max Berlin was planning on becoming a journalist after graduating from Hunter College in New York City. A thoughtful young man who had emigrated from Odessa, Ukraine, in 1992,…
The Latest
-
Scholars From Around the Globe Toast Oz
In advance of the publication of his new memoir, “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” Amos Oz and his writing will be the subject of a three-day conference, a joint venture by the University of Pennsylvania and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. “Oz has just come out with one of the most important works written…
-
Derrida | Wrestling With the Angel That Was Himself
Portrait of Jacques Derrida as a Young Jewish Saint By Hélène Cixous Columbia University Press, 168 pages, $27.50 * * *| During the era of the Talmud, the period of the scholars known as the Amoraim (200-500 C.E.) was dedicated to the fleshing out of the sparse, cryptic pronouncements of their predecessors, the Tannaim. In…
-
Second-line Living
New Orleans serenaded L. J. Goldstein.The brass band funerals and street parades, called second lines, that wind through the town of Treme, outside the French Quarter, were far from his comfortable Manhattan, N.Y., upbringing, but close to his heart. “I used to dream of moving to New Orleans,” Goldstein said. “I was drawn to the…
-
New Books Blend Kabbalah, Psychotherapy and Self-Help
The Secret Life of God: Discovering the Divine Within You Rabbi David Aaron Shambhala, 192 pages, $21.95. * * *| Sacred Therapy: Jewish Spiritual Teachings on Emotional Healing And Inner Wholeness Estelle Frankel Shambhala, 332 pages., $24.95. * * *| As everyone seems to know by now, Kabbalah has broken into the mainstream. Thanks to…
-
Blond Ambition: A Yiddish Diva Serenades Fans
The American Friends of the Hebrew University dinner September 28 at the St. Regis honoring Daniel Schultz, managing director and co-founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Gotham Ventures, was launched by glorious renditions of our National Anthem and HaTikvah, sung by Tizmoret, Queens College Hillel’s a cappella choir. Harvey Krueger, philanthropist and past AFHU chairman of…
-
Our Evil Imaginations
The story of the Flood is preceded and followed by unkind remarks of God on the nature of human imagination. In Genesis 6:5, at the end of last week’s portion, we are told: And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of…
-
The Devil Maid Me Do It
The plot is simple, even seductively coy, but it reverberates into the year ahead. In Isaac Bashevis Singer’s only Yiddish play, “Devil’s Play,” it seems the devil is bored and is looking for a little fun with an easy victim. He settles on a remote shtetl, Frampol, where he finds a happily married older couple,…
-
Your Morning Coffee, Served Just and Right
What is the most valuable item of international trade in the world today? No surprise for anyone who’s read the headlines for the past decade or two: It’s oil. But you might be surprised to discover that the second most valuable item is coffee. Oil and coffee — that’ll add a bit of perspective to…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
- 2
News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
- 3
Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
- 4
News Middlebury College Hillel votes to rebrand, distancing from parent group on Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump national Shabbat divides America’s Jews ahead of National Mall prayer rally
-
Fast Forward Talarico won’t campaign with Democratic House candidate who wants to open ‘a prison for American Zionists’
-
Fast Forward Cornell trustees back Jewish president after confrontation with pro-Palestinian protesters
-
Fast Forward Jewish Rep. Steve Cohen will not run for reelection after Tennessee GOP redraws his district