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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How To Confuse a Gentile
Carol Russak writes from San Francisco: “My mother, who was from a small town near Chernovitz, used to use the expression daber nisht when she didn’t want to talk about a subject. I know that this means ‘Don’t talk,’ a combination of Hebrew daber and Yiddish nisht. Have you ever come across this expression?” I…
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Everything Isn’t Illuminated
EL ILUMINADO: A GRAPHIC NOVEL by Ilan Stavans and Steve Sheinkin Basic Books, 208 pages, $24.99 ‘I suppose you’ll turn the whole murky mystery into some preposterous page-turner,” one of Ilan Stavans’s academic colleagues tells him as “El Iluminado” gets moving. “‘The Da Vinci Code,’ with matzo and salsa picante.” That would be the best-case…
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Choreographing Across The Continents
Netta Yerushalmy is fascinated with the relationship between how one dances and where one dances. About two and a half years ago, the Israeli-raised, New York-based choreographer embarked on a choreographic process that spanned two continents. Her aim: to explore the how, where and what, when it comes to creating her dances. With the aid…
The Latest
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Books Author Blog: Festivus!
Earlier this week, Joshua Eli Plaut wrote about Jewish Santas. 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: Festivus, the secular December holiday credited to a screenwriter of the 1990s television sitcom “Seinfeld,”…
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Books Between the Lines and Under the Paint
Earlier this week, Debra Band shared the back story behind “Arise! Arise!” 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 tales of Deborah, Ruth and Hannah are wonderful stories, full of vivid…
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Looking Back: December 14, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 Chicago police arrested Samuel Kramer, the famed New York City pickpocket who was arrested months ago with gangsters “Lefty Louie” Rosenberg and “Gyp the Blood” Horowitz but managed to escape, after an anonymous tip informed them that Kramer was holed up in a local brothel. He was in bed when five…
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A Very Sussman Hanukkah
As anyone who has ever stood sweating and swearing in front of a spitting-hot pan of oil knows, the Hanukkah tradition of making latkes is hard work. It requires skill, patience, and a well-developed sense of humor. Luckily, Max and Eli Sussman, brothers and chefs living and cooking in Brooklyn, have all three — and…
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Jakob Dylan Has Been Born Again
Jakob Dylan may have had his fate set in (rolling) stone when his father immortalized him in song when he was still a child. When Dylan, who turns 43 this December, was 5 years old, old man Bob rewrote the Friday night Sabbath blessing over the children, turning it into a folk hymn that became…
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Books So You Want to Dress Up as Santa?
Joshua Eli Plaut, PhD, is the full-time Executive Director of American Friends of Rabin Medical, as well as the Rabbi of the Metropolitan Synagogue in Manhattan. His most recent book, “A Kosher Christmas: ‘Tis the Season to be Jewish,” is now available. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish…
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How-To Guide to Hanukkah Gingerbread House
As a finishing touch to my gingerbread house this year, I pressed a tiny white mezuza made out of vanilla taffy onto the doorpost and couldn’t help but smirk. My love of the holiday season and of Jewish tradition had reached new and very sugary peaks as my fingers stuck to the royal icing. During…
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Books Author Blog: The Back Story
Debra Band’s most recent book, “Arise! Arise! Deborah, Ruth and Hannah” is now available. Her work in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts draws upon her love of both the manuscript arts, and Jewish tradition and learning. Her blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog…
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