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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Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ Marks Century
This October marks the centenary of one of the oddest landmarks in music history. One of the most influential works ever, it remains knotted in paradoxes. The composer was a Jew who at the time insisted he was Christian; but not very long after this disavowal emphatically re-embraced his Jewish heritage. The work mocked religion…
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Exhibit Focuses On Middle Eastern Women Artists
Although the Middle East seems to be forever in the news, for many of us, its reality remains distant. And the media cycle, with its focus on violence and turmoil, can make the region feel even more foreign. So it’s welcome when anyone finds a way to bring the Middle East closer to home. This…
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Books Author Blog: Storytellers
Stefanie Pervos Bregman is the editor of the anthology “Living Jewishly: A Snapshot of a Generation.” 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: As a Jewish blogger and editor, I always say…
The Latest
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Holocaust Memoir Fraud Inspires Novel
The Canvas By Benjamin Stein Translated by Brian Zumhagen Open Letter Paper, 342 pages, $16.95 In 1995, a man named Binjamin Wilkomirski published a memoir called “Fragments,” in which he described the horrors of his childhood in Poland during the Holocaust. The book was a big deal. It was heaped with laurels, including the National…
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The New Testament Sounds Odd in Yiddish
In my September 6 column about a Yiddish translation of the Qur’an, I observed that many of the singular effects created by translating the sacred scriptures of Islam, a religion closely linked to Judaism, into an intensely Jewish language like Yiddish would no doubt be found in a Yiddish translation of the Christian New Testament,…
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Confronting Father’s Mountain of Exaggerations
Born in Lyon, France, in 1919, the legendary mountaineer Maurice Herzog was the leader of a 1950 expedition that was the first to conquer Annapurna, a peak that is part of the Himalayas in north central Nepal. Returning with frostbite that necessitated the amputation of his fingers and toes, Herzog wrote “Annapurna: First Conquest of…
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Books Author Blog: Salmon and the Jews
Earlier this week, Rae and Noah Bernamoff wrote about some of their upcoming events and how they went from slinging smoked meat to writing a cookbook. Their 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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Where Have All the Yizkor Ladies Gone?
Yom Kippur always struck me as one of the constants in modern Jewish life. While virtually everything outside of its precincts seems to be in a continuous state of flux, this holiday holds its own. The rushed pre-fast dinner and the elaborate post-fast fete, the majesty of the Kol Nidre prayer and the intrusiveness of…
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Music Pinto Under House Arrest in Israel
The charismatic Israeli kabbalist Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto was questioned today with his wife by Israeli police in a bribery investigation, Israeli news sites are reporting. Police questioned the powerful rabbi, who has ties to top Israeli lawmakers and businessmen, on charges that he attempted to bribe a police officer, according to ynet.co.il, Israel’s largest…
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Film & TV Celebs Shtick it Up for Reproductive Rights
Sarah Silverman has been making humorous political videos for a while, but in her latest one she has some very A-list friends helping her out. Everyone with blue-leaning inclinations, it seemed, posted her “Great Schlep” video on their Facebook walls in 2008, spreading the word about her effort to get young Jews to convince their…
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Books Author Blog: The Future of Jewish Food
Yesterday, Rae and Noah Bernamoff wrote about how they went from slinging smoked meat to writing a cookbook. Today, Noah writes about an upcoming some of their upcoming events, plus shares some great challah recipes. Their blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author…
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