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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Books
‘Jewish Oprah’ Carolyn Starman Hessel Turns Page From Jewish Book Council
(JTA) — When Carolyn Starman Hessel joined the New York-based Jewish Book Council in 1994 – at the request of friend Marsha Posner – she knew nothing about the publishing world. Since then, she’s been called the “Jewish Oprah” for her ability to help authors find audiences, and has enjoyed enormous clout and influence among…
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Undermining Nazi Ideal of Racial Purity — in Black and White
(Haaretz) — Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Rudolf Hoess, the Kommandant of Auschwitz, stands at the barbed-wire fence of Buchenwald concentration camp. The tattooed numbers belong to Auschwitz survivors who have become friends over the years. Aminata Belli, a German woman who looks more African than Aryan, poses outside the 1939 monument glorifying German colonialism in…
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Bullets Fired at Paris Kosher Restaurant
A kosher restaurant in Paris was fired on in an attack that is similar to one on a Paris synagogue days earlier. Bullet holes were discovered Wednesday in the window of the Al Haeche kosher restaurant located in the 19th district of northeastern Paris. The attack reportedly occurred Tuesday night, the JSSNews website reported. The…
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Conflict Kitchen Stirs the Pot in Pittsburgh
It’s not that Jon Rubin and Dawn Weleski were surprised by the controversy over the latest version of their ongoing restaurant/art project, Conflict Kitchen. In the four and a half years since they set up a takeout window to serve the cuisines of conflict zones around the world, they’d seen their fair share of debate….
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Resisting Christmas in North Dakota
At the first poinsettia sighting, many of my Jewish friends from New York or Los Angeles recall youthful feelings of exclusion. To them I say, get over it. If you want to know authentic Christmas envy, try growing up Jewish in a frostbitten North Dakota town with a Lutheran church on every other corner. In…
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Unusual Creatures That Ruled the World in 2014
The definitive ten best from the world of unusual creatures by Liana Finck — with apologies to Edward Gorey. SCROLL DOWN TO ENLARGE
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Joe Cocker’s 8 Greatest Jewish Hits
Joe Cocker, the English vocalist who has died at the age of 70, is perhaps best known for his electrifying performance at Woodstock. Or, perhaps, for the Grammy-winning monster hit “Up Where We Belong,” featured in the film “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Throughout his illustrious career, though, Cocker had more than a few encounters…
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How 12 Jews, a Bear and a Robot Took Shtetlsphere by Storm
2014 saw the rise of the first Jewish ‘Bachelorette,’ Jewish chatbots and our own version of a Jewish royal baby (thanks Chelsea Clinton!) We lost Joan Rivers just as Monica Lewinsky made her comeback. A 13-year-old comedian made Howard Stern blush. And let’s not forget an Israeli miracle: Mango the Bear’s “meteoric recovery.” We’ve got…
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Michael Twitty, Black Jewish Foodie, Talks ‘Culinary Justice’
(Haaretz) — “Only as a Jew [wearing a skullcap], white women offer me rides wherever I am going. I’m like, ‘White woman, you know I am black, right?’” With that sarcasm-laced remark, Michael Twitty won the hearts of the dozens of students who had gathered on a cold Thursday afternoon in November to hear the historian…
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6 Things About Jewish North Dakota
1) 400 Jews live in North Dakota, fewer than any other state except South Dakota. 2) Born in Lithuania in 1860, Rabbi Benjamin Papermaster served as Rabbi of the Grand Forks, North Dakota Jewish community from 1891 until 1934. 3) North Dakota has two active synagogues — Temple Beth El in Fargo and Bnai Israel…
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Books Few Bright Spots for Jewish Books in 2014
It’s been a brutal year. As always, the world is in chaos. We hear about it every time we read the news, or turn on the television, or check our Facebook feeds. ISIS, Gaza, Ukraine, Ferguson, campus rape. Russian oligarchs have taken over New York City. Corporate citizens have taken over the government. Though the…
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