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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Maccabees Most Macabre
Moshe Waldmann has sent me an email about my July 20 column dealing with how Yiddish sometimes uses different words when referring to Jews as opposed to gentiles. One example given there was the verb mekaber zayn, to “bury” (from Hebrew kavar), which is reserved by Yiddish for Jews, and Mr. Waldmann wonders whether this…
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Books Jews and Anxiety
Earlier this week, Daniel Smith, whose newest book, “Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety,” is now available, wrote about hearing voices and coping with anxiety. 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:…
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Hip-Hop, Criticism and Crossword Puzzles
Many Subtle Channels: In Praise of Potential Literature By Daniel Levin Becker Harvard University Press, 352 pages, $27.95 It takes a certain kind of literary genius to explain rapper Fabolous’s lyrics using ancient Greek rhetorical devices. Best known for his 2001 song “Young’n (Holla Back)” — now an unintended time capsule for the long forgotten…
The Latest
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Looking Back: August 3, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 — Joseph Sidernscher, better known as Whitey Lewis, was arrested as an accomplice in the murder of Herman “Beansie” Rosenthal. Initially it appeared that Lewis had a watertight alibi, but after a few hours in police custody, he appeared distressed, as the police were able to link him to the two…
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Books Author Blog: Focusing Under Pressure
Earlier this week, Daniel Smith, whose newest book, “Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety,” is now available, wrote about hearing voices. 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 my last post,…
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Republic of Dance
For three days every summer, the northern Israeli bedroom community of Karmiel, population 52,000, swells to upward of a quarter of a million people. Most of the visitors are avid dancers or dance lovers. Others come just to enjoy the heady atmosphere of the Karmiel Dance Festival, which bills itself as the largest international dance…
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Books Author Blog: Hearing Voices
Daniel Smith’s newest book, “Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety,” 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 series, please visit: I know a little something about hearing voices. My first book, “Muses,…
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Books Author Blog: The Dangers of Nice
Earlier this week Matti Friedman, a reporter in Jerusalem for The Times of Israel, and author of The Aleppo Codex, wrote about the codex vs. the Kindle and provided a mini-lesson on Jews from Arab lands. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s…
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Looking Back: July 27, 2012
100 Years Ago 1912 — Arrests continue to be made for the murder of gambler Herman “Beansie” Rosenthal, who was gunned down in front of Manhattan’s Hotel Metropole. Rosenthal had recently been in the news for accusations he made that NYPD vice cop Charles Becker was in cahoots with gamblers and brothel owners all over…
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What ‘Rape Jokes’ Could Learn from Jewish Humor
For weeks, verbal volleys have gone back and forth across the internet, the television airwaves, and now the pages of newspapers over the appropriateness of rape jokes and the role of feminism in humor. It all stemmed from an account on a blog written by a women who went to a stand-up show by popular…
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From Rabbi’s Daughter to World-Shocker
The subject of a new documentary, “Love and Politics,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, actress and director Judith Malina is internationally celebrated for startlingly unconventional theater, such as her 2011 play “Korach: The Biblical Anarchist.” A rabbi’s daughter who turned 86 on June 4, Malina has long been invigorating and scandalizing…
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