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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When Greenville, South Carolina, Had a Jewish Mayor
In a typical happy-ever-after story, a carefree dance with a stranger in the park could theoretically lead to true love and a joyous life. But for Max Heller, a Jewish Austrian man born in 1919, dancing with an American woman in Vienna’s Stadtpark ultimately led him to become the mayor of South Carolina’s sixth largest…
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Slaves of Charleston
Founded in 1749 in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, the Beth Elohim Synagogue is one of the very earliest synagogues in America. While other synagogues and congregations are also now a part of Charleston city life, Beth Elohim Synagogue is the oldest one in the area and serves as the repository for certain historical artifacts of…
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11 Facts About Jewish South Carolina
1. There are 13,570 Jews in South Carolina, representing 0.3% of population. 2. In 1669, John Locke drafted the constitution for the Carolina Colony. In it, he granted “liberty of conscience to all heathens, Jews and dissenters.” 3. In 1774, Francis Salvador became the first Jew to hold elected office in the Americas when he…
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The 110 Jewish Women Who Changed France
● 110 French Jewish Women Who Changed France: the 19th and 20th Centuries By Michèle Bitton Les Éditions Normant, 678 pages, $38 Although overachieving Jews can transform their native lands triumphantly, the way their countries change them can often be tragic. This is one conclusion to be drawn from “110 French Jewish Women Who Changed…
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Vatican Absolves Jews for the Alleged Murder of Jesus Christ
1914 • 100 years ago Jews of Warsaw Left Penniless With the onset of the current war, the Jews of Warsaw, Poland, are already experiencing difficulties and privations. The banks have shut down, preventing depositors from retrieving their funds. Many stand outside the banks with their heads in their hands, penniless until the banks permit…
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Music Jewish Leaders Meet With Hungarian Government After Almost a Year of Silence
Leaders of Jewish communities throughout Hungary met with representatives of the Hungarian government almost a year after the suspension of contacts between the sides. The more than four-hour discussion on Tuesday at the Hungarian Parliament building centered on eight topics of importance to the Jewish community, according to Janos Lazar, the chief negotiator representing the…
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How Ruth Calderon Transforms Israeli Politics — and Talmud
● A Bride For One Night: Talmud Tales By Ruth Calderon, translated by Ilana Kurshan The Jewish Publication Society, 184 pages, $21.95 If Ruth Calderon did not exist, it would be necessary to dream of someone like her. For almost half a century, American expatriates and a small group of native Israelis have creatively and…
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Music Brazilian School Apologizes for Test Question Comparing Israelis to Nazis
A school in Rio de Janeiro published a public apology for an exam question that compared Israelis to Nazis. The geography exam for eighth-graders at Colégio Andrews included a question that said Jews were once chased by Hitler and today another people is victimized by the Israelis, who compel them to live under their rule…
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Music Israel August Tourism Numbers Take a Sharp Downturn From Last Year
Israel’s August tourist numbers took a sharp downturn from the previous year’s figures. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 182,000 visitor entries were recorded for the month in Israel, down 36 percent from August 2013. Of the visitor entries, 164,000 were tourists staying more than one night, 32 percent less than August a year…
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How Steven Pinker Became the Anti-Maven of Language
Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family professor of psychology at Harvard, didn’t coin “language maven” (William Safire did, back in the ’70s, to describe himself), but he did more than anyone else to popularize the term. In a 1994 article in The New Republic called “Grammar Puss,” included in his subsequent book “The Language Instinct,” Pinker…
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The Spy Who Came In From Hamas
With the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories constantly shifting between open conflict and frail cease-fires this summer, the release of the documentary “The Green Prince” could not be timelier. Directed by Nadav Schirman, the film, which opens on Friday in New York, tells the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas…
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