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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Abbreviate This!
Howard Schranz wants to know the origin and exact meaning of the Yiddish word nebekh. “When I was 11,” he writes, “after my father, a”h, died, I heard a lot of nebekh thrown my way. I know it meant something like, ‘It’s pitiful,’ and I quickly tired of being called that. Show some sympathy if…
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Turn-of-Century Vienna Artists Deserve Second Look
When writing of great Viennese artists, influential historians such as Carl Schorske in his landmark “Fin-de-siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture” do not even mention sculptor Teresa Ries (1874-1956), Impressionist landscape painter Tina Blau (1845-1916), and figurative artist Bronica Koller (1863-1934). But posterity can play strange tricks. And now, in “The Memory Factory: The Forgotten Women…
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A Ticket That Marked the Path to Freedom
My desk at home, which I commandeered from my husband, is an imposing piece of furniture. Fashioned out of mahogany and ornamented with brass fittings, it also boasts a leather top, which is covered by a protective layer of glass. A wide array of mementos are wedged in between the leather and the glass: A…
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Bartlett Sher Weighs in on Clifford Odets
When boxer Joe Bonaparte (Seth Numrich) realizes his hand is shattered following a brutal match, he howls in pain, despair and also triumphant joy. It’s a stunningly powerful — and complex — moment in “Golden Boy,” now playing on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre, 75 years after a Group Theatre production of the Clifford Odets…
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Medieval Painting Hints at Ties Between Blacks and Jews
The anonymous 16th-century painter who recorded a scene of everyday life at the king’s fountain (Chafariz d’El Rei) in Lisbon depicted an impressive range of people and animals. In addition to a swan, a seal, fish, horses, dogs and birds, the artist also included more than 150 human figures. There’s so much going on in…
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Looking Back: January 18, 2013
100 Years Ago 1913 One of our local, homegrown Jewish gangsters from New York City’s East Side, Joseph Tablinsky, was arrested on the charge of horse thievery. Sam Bernstein, who owns a stable on Cherry Street, where two horses worth about $400 recently went missing, brought the charges. The horses were later found in Berish…
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Books Higher Education: A Revelation
Earlier this week, Cliff Graubart wrote about his father and Pat Conroy. 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 know Jewish doctors and lawyers who are sending their children to state…
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Books From Stanislawow to Beach Music
Cliff Graubart is the author of “The Curious Vision Of Sammy Levitt and Other Stories” (Mercer University Press, 2012). 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: My parents left the United States…
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If Bono Were a Cantor
A few weeks ago, I sat through my first Friday night service at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The cantor, Daniel Singer, led the congregation through an hour’s worth of song and prayer, accompanied, to my surprise, by a quaint rock group. At one point, he sang the Psalm Shir…
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Books Author Blog: Arbitrary Judaism
Earlier this week, Justine Hope Blau wrote about growing up in an intellectual but chronically homeless family. 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: We grew up with my mother’s special brand…
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Lower East Side Dad Has Daughter Arrested For Dating Local Gangster Boy
1913 •100 years ago Weinberg Has Daughter Arrested In a courtroom, Herman Weinberg, a 38-year-old resident of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, accused his own teenage daughter, Flora, of hanging around with unsavory characters, specifically a local gangster who goes by the name “Joe Spanish.” Weinberg, who works at a bookbinding shop with his daughter, tried…
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