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 Jewish Magician at the Egyptian Theater
Earlier this week, Gerald Kolpan shared the story behind Eli Gershonson and a photo gallery of some of the historical figures in his novel “Magic Words.” 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…
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Is ‘Halachic’ Going Mainstream?
Whatever we may think of advertising — a capitalist tool, an agent of manipulation, a bravura display of wit and verbal dexterity, the stuff of an irresistible television show such as “Mad Men” — it’s hard to conceive of modern life without it. In the absence of advertisements, whether print, electronic or digital, our newspapers,…
The Latest
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Books Author Blog: Historical Figures in ‘Magic Words’
Visiting blogger Gerald Kolpan shares some of the historical figures in his latest novel, “Magic Words: The Tale of a Jewish Boy-Interpreter, the World’s Most Estimable Magician, a Murderous Harlot, and America’s Greatest Indian Chief.” His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author…
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Living With Isaac Bashevis Singer
Who could live with Isaac Bashevis Singer? The sexual escapades of the most successful Yiddish writer in America — and the one whom most Yiddish literati loved to hate — were public knowledge, in large part because he himself built his reputation as a Casanova in his own fiction, where he was chased into the…
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Books Author Blog: The Return of Eli Gershonson
Gerald Kolpan’s newest book, “Magic Words: The Tale of a Jewish Boy-Interpreter, the World’s Most Estimable Magician, a Murderous Harlot, and America’s Greatest Indian Chief,” is now available. 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…
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From Siberia To the Lower East Side
Rewriting Russia: Jacob Gordin’s Yiddish Drama By Barbara Henry University of Washington Press, 276 pages, $35 Barbara Henry’s new book recounts a telling anecdote about the opening of Jacob Gordin’s first Yiddish play, in 1891. As the play progressed, the New York audience became restless; it wanted more songs and diversion than it received from…
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How Do You Say ‘Freebie’ in Hebrew?
How do you say “freebie” in Hebrew? This was the question facing the daily newspaper Haaretz when called upon to translate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remark, delivered in Jerusalem in English on April 15, that the United States and Europe had given Iran a “freebie” by deferring further negotiations over its nuclear program until late…
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Books Acknowledging the Tenement Museum
Earlier this week Debra Spark wrote about meeting Adin Steinsaltz and why she makes her characters Jewish. 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: These days, when people write a book, they…
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Break Dancing Across the Green Line
“Hip-hop goes beyond race, religion or socioeconomic class,” according to Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris, hip-hop dancer and founder of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Philadelphia’s famed hip-hop dance company. “Whether you are from Philly or Cairo, you can connect with African-American arts, because they are about freedom.” His words had just been acid-tested by a month-long tour of…
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Looking Back: May 4, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward Reports are coming in offering details of a particularly brutal pogrom that recently took place in Fez, Morocco. Hundreds of Jews were killed and wounded, many Jewish women were raped, children were kidnapped and babies were slaughtered. The pogromists apparently were so vicious that they threw babies off of…
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Books Author Blog: Do My Characters Need To Be Jewish?
Earlier this week, Debra Spark wrote about meeting Adin Steinsaltz. 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: Should I show my husband my work? My sister? My mother? Students sometimes ask me…
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