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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Forward 50 2013
Philip Roth
The Forward 50 is our annual look at the American Jews who made a difference in the past year. Each day, we will spotlight one of our Top 5 picks, leading up to Sunday night when the entire package — along with some very special surprises — will go live. There was no Philip Roth…
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Israel’s Most Beautiful — and Unforgettable — Redheads
(Haaretz) — Back and forth, I run my eyes over each of these redheads − blue eyes, brown eyes, green-yellow eyes; and hair that is golden, orange, copper, flame-like, auburn fire, persimmon, reddish-brown − and I know that this is just one good idea. I know, too, that it is not unique, that it has…
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Mendel Beilis Cleared in Ukraine Anti-Semitic Blood Libel Trial
1913 •100 years ago Mendel Beilis Not Guilty After two hours of deliberation, the jury in Mendel Beilis’s blood-libel trial has declared him not guilty of all crimes. Beilis stood quietly, and his demeanor was calm — just as it was for most of the five-week-long trial — as the verdict was read. The courtroom…
The Latest
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Learning About Jewish Community From Manhattan’s Upper West Side
The recent findings of the Pew Research Center study (yes, that again) have left many of us scratching our heads, biting our nails and searching every which way for answers. Some have sought explanation, let alone consolation, in the broad strokes of macro-analysis, others in anecdote and still others in history. The past, as you…
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Zen and the Art of the BuJu
I admit, I am a BuJu. I admit, I am a BuJu. Of course, I am not alone. Not only do a disproportionate number of American Buddhist teachers come from Jewish backgrounds, but many Jews practice both Judaism and Buddhism, and many more practice a Jewish spirituality influenced by Buddhist-derived meditation practices and values. The…
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Books Dealing With the Side Effects of Fiction
Happy Mutant Baby Pills By Jerry Stahl Harper Perennial, 272 pages, $14.99 The narrator of Jerry Stahl’s new novel “Happy Mutant Baby Pills,” has a serious case of unrest. Lloyd earns his living writing pharmaceutical copy — specifically, disclaimers for the side effects of various drugs. He’s also got a fairly severe heroin habit, and…
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Q&A: Randy Goldberg of Bombas Socks
— After successfully raising $140,000 on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo, Bombas Socks shipped the first of their product to customers. Bombas, the Warby Parker or TOMS Shoes of socks, is based on a simple idea: one pair purchased equals one pair donated. In this case, Bombas donates to homeless shelters that are in massive need…
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Opera About Holocaust Survivor Premieres for 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht
‘I will protect you,” a father sings in the opera “Lost Childhood” to comfort his 9-year-old son, Julek The tragic irony is that shortly thereafter, the father, emblematic of so many Jewish men, will be marched out of his Lvov, Poland, home and murdered by the Nazis. Young Julek, now Yehuda Nir, is a retired…
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Ex-Hasidic Woman Marks Five Years Since She Shaved Her Head
I remember the first time I felt the cold, prickly air on my newly shaved head. I remember looking in the mirror. I remember staring at the pile of auburn hair in the vanity sink of the cozy basement apartment I now shared with my husband of less than a day. I remember my mother…
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Sacred and Profane History of Cherished Jewish Number 18
For Jews the world over, the number 18 has long enjoyed a special status. In Jewish liturgy, the prayer known as the Amidah is also called the “Shmoneh Esreh” (“the 18”), referring to the number of separate blessings that originally comprised the prayer. In the Jewish numerological tradition of gematria, the number 18 has long…
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Ruth Messinger and Marilyn Sneiderman Are Odd Couple of Jewish Social Justice
One or more nights a week, a lofty-ceilinged prewar apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan becomes an unexpected nexus of feminist Jewish social justice power. That’s what happens when the heads of two of the country’s major Jewish philanthropic organizations — Ruth Messinger, president and CEO of American Jewish World Service and Marilyn…
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