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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Meet the ‘Micro Mechitzah’
[ ![][2]][2] Driven by a rising number of complaints about immodesty in public spaces, a number of B’nai Brak firms have launched competing lines of mechitzahs. “People want to feel as safe from immodesty outside of shul as they do inside,” said Shalom Shalomov of SegReg8. “Our micro mechitzahs can be used at the beach,…
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Shalit’s Parents Want Gratitude
[ ![][2]][2] MITZPE HILA, ISRAEL —The parents of recently released Israeli solider Gilad Shalit say that, while they are pleased and relieved to have their son back home, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. “I would have thought that mounting an international publicity campaign for five years might be worth a little gratitude, a little…
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Samson To Appeal Juicing Charges
[ ![][2]][2] NEW YORK — The competitive demolition community is in an uproar after the urine sample of Samson “The Danite” Zoraker tested positive for performance enhancing substances this weekend. “I’m totally innocent,” Samson claimed on Monday at a press conference. “I’ve never used any controlled substances, except for my hair.” Jewish slugger and National…
The Latest
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Christmas, Hanukkah or Apocalypse?
[ ![][2]][2] If you’re a Jewish parent like me, you always dread December. There’s the relentless onslaught of Christmas carols and decorations. The perpetual question of, “Do I try to compete and distort Hanukkah, or honor the holiday but nonpluss my kids?” And, worst of all for a Jew, there’s all that wintertime indoor-heat chafing….
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Scientist Discovers Plaid in the Spectrum
[ ![][2]][2] Organic food stores, children’s book publishers, LGBT groups and leprechauns have been thrown into turmoil by the discovery by Noah Obadiah, a professor at the Technion in Haifa, of an extra color in the rainbow. Although he discovered the color nestling between blue and indigo several months ago, he was waiting for the…
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Talking Comics With Diane Noomin
Pioneer of women’s comics Diane Noomin talks to Michael Kaminer about Wimmen’s Comix, Twisted Sister and her new book, “Glitz-2-Go.” The many and varied adventures of Didi Glitz — the book’s central character and Noomin’s comic alter ego of several decades — both delight and instruct. Noomin uses Didi to combine the personal and the…
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An Immigrant’s Life, Told Graphically
In 1906, Nasye Frug wrote to the Forverts about her life as a new wife and recent immigrant. Even before receiving unhelpful wedding gifts, she had realized that the Goldene Medina of the New World was not turning out to be quite the life she had imagined. Writing about her childhood in the Old Country…
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Nudge, Nudge. Wink, Wink.
Charles Krauthamer of Teaneck, N.J. (not to be confused with the Washington columnist of the same name), writes to ask: “A word used in Israel to mean ‘to pester’ is l’najez. I always assumed that it came from the Yiddish word ‘nudge’ until I was told that it came from Arabic. Can you help?” The…
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Books Author Blog: Finding My Religion
Earlier this week, Michelle Haimoff discussed her unlikely in-laws and having immigrant parents, baby boomers, and parental expectations. Her blog posts are being featured this week 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: I went to a…
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How ‘Eichlers’ Brought Design to Suburbia
In the spring of 2011, Adam and Justine Amdur were heartbroken over having to give up their home in Marin County’s Terra Linda, just north of San Francisco. The sale had nothing to do with the sustained economic downturn or the depressed housing market plaguing the nation. In fact, as spring house sales get under…
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Books The Many Sides of Walther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau: Weimar’s Fallen Statesman By Shulamit Volkov Yale University Press, 256 pages, $25.00 The German Jewish community of the late 19th century found itself in a curious situation. On the one hand, German unification in 1871 weakened opposition to Jewish emancipation, and Jews demonstrated their willingness to integrate into German society and culture. At…
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