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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Benoit Mandelbrot Influenced Art and Mathematics
Born in Warsaw in 1924 to a Lithuanian Jewish family, Benoit Mandelbrot survived Nazi-occupied France to become one of the most creative thinkers of the 20th century. Mandelbrot, who died of pancreatic cancer in a Cambridge, Mass., hospice in 2010, left behind “The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick”. He coined the term “fractal” in…
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When Foundations’ Days Are Numbered
The names of philanthropists like Charles and Andrea Bronfman may not be remembered by millions of beneficiaries 100 years from now. Unlike Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford, whose reputations live on through generations of ongoing philanthropic largesse, the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies (ACBP) is part of a trend of spend-down foundations. Spending down means that,…
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Books Author Blog: Semitic Squads
Earlier this week, Marc Tracy challenged Jewish sports fans to a little quiz and wrote about Jews in sports and Hollywood. 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: Each of our 50…
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Who Benefits From Service Trips?
Every year, hundreds upon hundreds of American Jews go to “do service” in the name of tikkun olam, or repairing the world. Some work in their own neighborhoods, others work in poor areas close to their own neighborhoods and others get on a plane to “do service” in New Orleans, Central America or elsewhere around…
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Books Do You Know These Jewish Jocks?
On Tuesday, Marc Tracy wrote about Jews in sports and Hollywood. 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 the movie Airplane, a passenger asks for some “light” reading and is offered…
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Dial H For Hebrew
Alfred Hitchcock’s reputation as one of the greatest film directors of all time is safely in the can, so all that’s left to deal with is the man himself. Two new films — “Hitchcock,” a biopic starring Anthony Hopkins, and the HBO film “The Girl,” about Hitch’s troubled relationship with actress Tippi Hedren — have…
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Shimon Attie Projects Past Into Present
Artist Shimon Attie is probably best known for “Sites Unseen,” his 1990s series of temporary installations in Europe, in which he projected photographic images of a lost Jewish past onto actual sites. For “Writing on the Wall,” (1991–1993), Attie, living in Berlin at the time, was haunted by the lack of any past signs of…
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Books Reports of Obama-Wiesel Book Deal Shot Down
Don’t be rushing to your local bookstore or fumbling with your Kindle to download the new book that Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel was said to have been writing along with his buddy President Barack Obama. The two are still BFF’s. But it turns out something must’ve gotten lost in the translation about the book thing….
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Exploring ‘Chai’ Culture
There is, so I’m told, a new off-Broadway play in New York that is called “Bad Jews.” Its plot revolves around, believe it or not, the struggle of three grandchildren for possession of their beloved and recently deceased grandfather’s “chai” (pronounced khy, with the guttural “ch” of “Bach”) — which is, as most or all…
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Miriam Margolyes Is Dickens of an Actress
When I met Miriam Margolyes at her friend’s cozy apartment on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, she was sporting a bold floral house dress and a shock of wild white hair that seemed at odds with her upper-crust British accent. While she checked emails, she asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink, then admitted…
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Books Author Blog: Wimps
Earlier this week, Haim Watzman wrote about how to succeed in academia without doing any research and Super Tuesday. 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: Are Israeli guys real men? Yes,…
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