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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Rethinking Holocaust Education
I am the grandchild of three Holocaust survivors. My grandfather had the line of numbers tattooed on his arm, and they all had the terrible memories, the terrible losses. During my middle school years, now a decade ago, many of us went through what we consider our Holocaust phase. I read every book on the…
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Fun Times at Hebrew School
For generations of Jewish kids, Hebrew school has meant three or four, often boring, afternoons a week of classroom lectures and laborious language learning in a set curriculum. But thanks to a radical new pilot program starting this fall in New York City, students from third to seventh grades can learn about Jewish history, religion…
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What Was Driving Force Behind Jewish History?
The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70-1492 By Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein Princeton University Press, 323 pages, $39.50 What if most of what we thought we know about the history of the Jewish people between the destruction of the Second Temple and the Spanish Expulsion is wrong? This intriguing premise informs The…
The Latest
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Books Author Blog: Facing Paris’s Black Marble Plaques
Kati Marton’s most recent book, “Paris: A Love Story,” is now available. 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: Now that I live part-time in Paris, I explore the city’s complex and…
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Books Author Blog: An Intentional Detour
In his last post, Daniel Gordis wrote about how ideas and the books in which they are expressed change history. 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 few blogs,…
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Israeli Jazz Musicians Make Mark
Some two decades ago, bassist Omer Avital stepped off a plane from his native Israel and into a jazz scene in Manhattan’s West Village that was nearly devoid of his countrymen and their music. It was a lonely time, he said, and when he set up shop in Smalls, a dark and slightly tattered basement…
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Bringing Israeli Education Home
Americans, Jewish and otherwise, have long gone to Israel to learn about Judaism. But now many are going to learn about learning. In recent years, American educators have had growing opportunities to gain a window into the Israeli education system. The programs have somewhat different aims, but all foster a dialogue between educators from Israel…
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A, B, C’s or Aleph Bet?
Deciding on a preschool is a big step for any parent. More than just teaching the ABCs, preschool is a place where children learn how to take turns, follow directions and figure out the world around them. Also, as parents, we want to make sure we find a safe, supportive environment for our little ones….
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Neither a Niftar Nor a Nishperer Be
Time to catch up on some mail! Gary J. Frenkel takes issue with my statement in my August 17 column that the name Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshu (a shortened form of Yeshu’a, itself a shortened form of Yehoshua or Joshua). Mr. Frenkel writes: “My understanding is that Yeshu is, not a shortened version of…
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Why Social Media Can Be Good
As the mother of three boys, I appreciate the irony in suggesting that my kids could possibly benefit from having their eyes permanently locked onto screens and their thumbs flashing furiously across tiny keyboards. “Screens off” is a shout heard often in our house (shouted by me, of course). But social media aren’t all bad….
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Torah Games and the Future of Learning
Rabbi Owen Gottlieb believes that the future of Jewish education is in games — both video and analog, like card and board games. Gottlieb, 38, is a doctoral candidate in education and Jewish studies at New York University and is the director and founder of ConverJent, which designs and develops games for Jewish learning and…
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Yiddish אַ פֿײַערונג לכּבֿוד ייִדיש־ליגעס „ווערטער פֿון דער וואָך“ A celebration of the League for Yiddish series ‘Words of the Week’
גיטל שעכטער־ווישוואַנאַט, וואָס פֿירט אָן מיט דער סעריע, וועט רעדן וועגן דעם אָפּרוף פֿון אָן אַ שיעור לייענער.
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