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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Why Susan Steinberg May Be the Best Jewish Writer You’ve Never Read
● Spectacle By Susan Steinberg Graywolf Press, 152 pages, $14 In the current literary environment — conservative by inclination, market-driven by intention — it’s often hard to see the true accomplishment of a work of fiction through the buzz and packaging that surrounds it. The book is a product targeted toward a pre-existing class of…
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Books Author Blog: Almost Jewish
Earlier this week, Allison Amend wrote about the Jewish connection to art. Her 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: So why would a nice Jewish girl not write nice Jewish fiction? My…
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Haifa Museum Brings Outsider Artists Inside the World of Israeli Art
When she was seeking out works for what would be the first exhibition of outsider and naive art in Israel, Ruti Direktor, chief curator at the Haifa Museum of Art, received a negative reply from the Collection de l’Art Brut (Collection of Raw Art), in Lausanne, Switzerland. The administrators of the collection (which was initiated…
The Latest
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Retelling Jewish American Story Through History of Cinema
● The American Jewish Story Through Cinema By Eric A. Goldman University of Texas Press, 264 pages, $55. Eric A. Goldman’s look at about a dozen Hollywood movies released between 1927 and 2009 can be recommended especially to readers who don’t flinch when they ponder his book’s title. For me, the very notion of postulating…
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Thriller Writer Janice Steinberg Preaches Gospel of Second Chances
● The Tin Horse By Janice Steinberg Random House, 352 pages, $26 At 85, Elaine Greenstein Resnick, “a brisk, no-bullshit woman” who worked as a civil rights attorney, is downsizing as she prepares to enter a retirement community. The University of Southern California, which wants her papers, has provided an eager young archivist to help…
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In Gaza’s Kitchens
Gazans are used to talking with visitors about the political situation with Israel. But it’s not every day that two writers come knocking with questions about local cuisine. “Everyone wants to hear about borders, the situation, the blockade,” said Maggie Schmitt, co-author with Laila El-Haddad of the new cookbook, “The Gaza Kitchen.” “We said, ‘No,…
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The Secret Jewish History of David Bowie
David Bowie died of cancer on Sunday after a glittering five-decade career in pop music. The rocker won millions of fans across several generations by constantly reinventing himself, but who knew he had such a strong link to the Tribe? Madonna had nothing on David Bowie when she came out as a devotee of Kabbalah…
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Digging Deep Into the Collective Kitchens of Israel
A recipe book collected from the now-silent dining rooms of Israel’s kibbutzim sounds like a bad joke, a snide swipe at a relic of the old Israel from a couple of Tel Aviv hipsters. This book’s recipe for French Fried Potato Quiche and references to rubber chicken would fit right in. Yet Assi Haim and…
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Books The Jewish Connection to Art
Allison Amend’s most recent novel, “A Nearly Perfect Copy,” is now available. Allison was a finalist for the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for her novel “Stations West.” Her 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…
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How Three Jewish Boys From Wilmette Became the ‘Brothers Emanuel’
● Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family By Ezekiel Emanuel Random House, 288 pages, $27 As near as I can tell, it was New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller who brought the world’s attention to the phenomenon of the three fabulous Emanuel brothers from Wilmette, Ill. Before Bumiller’s 1997 article, people in medicine…
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Grappling With Yiddish Words That Punch Above Their Weight
A reader identified as “JA” wants to know: “Does the English word ‘slug,’ as in to slug someone, come from Yiddish shlogn, to hit? They certainly sound very similar.” My thinking about this went through three stages. Stage 1, my immediate reaction, was that “slug” and shlogn — or shlugn, in the Yiddish some of…
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