Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of Jewish culture. Here, you’ll learn about the latest (and sometimes earliest) in Jewish art, music, film, theater, books as well as the secret Jewish history of everything and everyone from The Rolling Stones to…
Culture
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I have seen the future of America — in a pastrami sandwich in Queens
San Wei, which serves pastrami sandwiches along with churros and biang biang noodles, represents an immigrant's fulfillment of the American dream
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Books A Catalan Jew’s Concise Wisdom
“Tell a blind man his house is on fire and he will reply, ‘I wish I could see that!’” “I don’t like having white hair but I like even less when it falls out. Isn’t it sad to worry about the loss of something one dislikes?” “My son, I prefer to see you hunting lions…
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Looking Back: August 10, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward Has anybody seen Abie Levitt’s wife? The Levitts moved with their son to Portland, Ore., from New York a few years ago. Not long after, Rosie Levitt started making noises about how the family should move back to New York. Abie didn’t want to go back — he was…
The Latest
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The Woman Who Can Help Hyatt’s Housekeepers
Ever since the Dominique Strauss-Khan scandal, the treatment of hotel workers and their very physical vulnerability has been eating away at my conscience. I savor an occasional hotel or B&B stay — there’s nothing like physical separation from the stack of bills, the computer, the “to-do” lists. But pleasures aren’t as pleasurable when you realize…
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Books Quebecois Chronicler of Continent’s First Jews
A French-language tome by a hard-line Quebec separatist doesn’t seem like a typical candidate for a Canadian Jewish Book Award. But in June, Denis Vaugeois’s “Les Premiers Juifs d’Amérique” won the 2012 prize for history, crowning what the Montreal Gazette called the historian’s ”55-year quest” to rescue the story of Quebec’s pioneering Hart family ”from…
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When the Right Is Right About the Left
Let me start with my bona fides. For several years, and at significant personal cost, I have spoken out about Israeli policies in the West Bank, in particular the settlements and the route of the separation barrier, which I deem to be generally illegal, immoral and harmful to both Israelis and Palestinians. I am also…
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Maccabees Most Macabre
Moshe Waldmann has sent me an email about my July 20 column dealing with how Yiddish sometimes uses different words when referring to Jews as opposed to gentiles. One example given there was the verb mekaber zayn, to “bury” (from Hebrew kavar), which is reserved by Yiddish for Jews, and Mr. Waldmann wonders whether this…
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Books Jews and Anxiety
Earlier this week, Daniel Smith, whose newest book, “Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety,” is now available, wrote about hearing voices and coping with anxiety. 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:…
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Hip-Hop, Criticism and Crossword Puzzles
Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature By Daniel Levin Becker Harvard University Press, 352 pages, $27.95 It takes a certain kind of literary genius to explain rapper Fabolous’s lyrics using ancient Greek rhetorical devices. Best known for his 2001 song “Young’n (Holla Back)” — now an unintended time capsule for the long forgotten…
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Looking Back: August 3, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 — Joseph Sidernscher, better known as Whitey Lewis, was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of Herman “Beansie” Rosenthal. Initially it appeared that Lewis had a watertight alibi, but after a few hours in police custody, he appeared distressed, as the police were able to link him to the two…
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Books Author Blog: Focusing Under Pressure
Earlier this week, Daniel Smith, whose newest book, “Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety,” is now available, wrote about hearing voices. 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: In my last post,…
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Republic of Dance
For three days every summer, the northern Israeli bedroom community of Karmiel, population 52,000, swells to upward of a quarter of a million people. Most of the visitors are avid dancers or dance lovers. Others come just to enjoy the heady atmosphere of the Karmiel Dance Festival, which bills itself as the largest international dance…
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