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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The Jewish History of ‘God Bless America’
In what would become an iconic display of mournful resolve after the twin towers fell, members of Congress who had gathered on the steps of the Capitol for a press conference on the evening of September 11, 2001, burst into a spontaneous chorus of “God Bless America.” Like many Americans watching that night, I was…
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So, a Jew, a Black, a Pakistani and a President Go to Germany
On the eve of Barack Obama’s arrival in Germany, security measures are unparalleled, media sources claim. People tell me that America’s first black president is Germany’s dream and they want to make sure the dream never ends. This, of course, might explain why residents near the Brandenburger Tor have been asked to keep their windows…
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Books A Lonely Golem
Earlier this week, Matthue Roth wrote about why kids love scary stories. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series, please visit: I was trying to figure out how to get people to buy “My…
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Books Scandal and Self-Correction in Kosher Food
Earlier this week Timothy D. Lytton wrote about organized crime and kosher food certification. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series, please visit: This past March, the owner of Doheny Glatt Kosher Meat Market,…
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How We Got Hitler-ized
It has been dismissed as a tempest in a teapot, but the recent brouhaha over JC Penney’s now-infamous Hitler teakettle may be more significant than it initially appears. Click to enlarge/Kurt Hoffman illustration. Far from being an isolated incident, it is merely the latest in a long series of news stories in recent years about…
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Books Why Kids Love Scary Stories
Matthue Roth’s newest book is “My First Kafka: Runaways, Rodents, and Giant Bugs.” He lives in Brookyn with his family and keeps a secret diary at www.matthue.com. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series,…
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The Evolution of the Relationship Between Catholics and Jews
● From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in Catholic Teaching on the Jews, 1933–1965 By John Connelly Harvard University Press, 384 pages, $35 My definition of Catholic-Jewish relations: an unnatural act engaged in by partially consenting adults — following an opening prayer. This one-liner tells us much that we need to know about the relationships…
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11 Ways To Show Moses Breaking the Tablets
On the 17th of Tammuz, which will be observed as a fast day on June 25 this year, Moses smashed the Ten Commandments on the foot of Mount Sinai after hearing the sounds of and seeing the idolatrous celebrations devoted to the Golden Calf. The idea, presumably, was that the bovine abomination was so atrocious…
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Books Kosher Food and Organized Crime
Timothy D. Lytton is the author of the recently published “Kosher: Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food” (Harvard University Press). His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog Series. For more information on the series, please visit: The Toronto Star…
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A Second Chance at a Yiddish Poem
Three readers — Daniel Soyer, Hirshl Hartman and Ben Ross — have written to correct a mistake I made in my June 7 column, “Whose Broad Noodles and Bright Farfel.”(The titles of my columns, by the way, are chosen by the Forward, not by me.) This occurred in my translation of Abraham Liessin’s 1938 Yiddish…
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Fraternity Branch Closes To Avoid Jewish Members
Forward Looking Back brings you the stories that were making news in the Forward’s Yiddish paper 100, 75, and 50 years ago. Check back each week for a new set of illuminating, edifying and sometimes wacky clippings from the Jewish past. 100 Years Ago 1913 The Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, an organization of secret societies…
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