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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Books
Author Blog: Pioneering Geneticist Chaim Sheba
IIn “Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People,” Harry Ostrer wrote about a series of scientists who contributed to our contemporary understanding of Jewishness. This week, he provides a series of short vignettes that describe their contributions about what it means to be a Jew. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite…
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Books Author Blog: Funny, You Don’t Book Jewish
Lois Leveen?s newest novel, ?The Secrets of Mary Bowser,? is now available. 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: [![][4]][4] There?s a novel I first read years ago that rang true in…
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Not Your Grandmother’s Grandmothers
The Story of a Life: Memoirs of a Young Jewish Woman in the Russian Empire By Anna Pavlovna Vygodskaia, translated by Eugene Avrutin and Robert Greene Northern Illinois University Press, 202 pages, $22.95 Journal (1918-1920) By Nelly Ptachkina, translated into French by Luba Jurgenson Les Éditions des Syrtes, 267 pages, $29.39 All too often, accounts…
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Books Author Blog: Fighting Anti-Semitism, Genetically
In “Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People,” Harry Ostrer wrote about a series of scientists who contributed to our contemporary understanding of Jewishness. This week, he provides a series of short vignettes that describe their contributions about what it means to be a Jew. His blog posts are featured on The Arty Semite…
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The God Who ‘Evenings Evenings’
Harvey Klineman has a question about the Hebrew phrase ha-ma’ariv aravim that occurs at the beginning and end of the opening prayer of the evening service — a phrase that means (referring to God) “who brings on evenings,” although a more literal translation of it would be “who evenings evenings.” Mr. Klineman writes: “Since this…
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Books Author Blog: Sleeping on Felix Frankfurter’s Couch
Earlier this week, Joshua Henkin talked about how he came to write his latest novel, his father and grandfather, and explored the question: “Are you a Jewish writer?” 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…
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Woody Lays an Egg
Woody Allen has made a lot of movies. I know this because I recently tried to watch them all in three days, over the Memorial Day weekend. It was impossible. To watch all 44 of Allen’s feature films back to back (and these are only the ones he wrote, directed or both), would take more…
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Books Author Blog: How Did I End Up Doing This?
Earlier this week, Joshua Henkin talked about his father and grandfather and explored the question: “Are you a Jewish writer?” 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: For a long time I…
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Looking Back: June 29, 2011
100 Years Ago 1912 A gang of Italians held a pogrom in Manhattan, on 114th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, during which two Jews were shot and grievously wounded. Both victims, Morris Stromberg and George Pollack, are in critical condition in Harlem Hospital. The previous evening, Pollack, his wife and the couple’s 14 month-old…
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Rebecca Lepkoff Keeps Going at 96
Street photographer Rebecca Lepkoff moves so fast that even those half her age can barely match her pace. One day the exuberant 96-year-old is shooting Latino storefronts in her Harlem neighborhood, the next she’s snapping her beloved Essex Street on the Lower East Side. In May, she boated up the Seine to Paris, where she…
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Books From Grandfather to Father to Son
Joshua Henkin is the author of “The World Without You,” “Matrimony,” and “Swimming Across the Hudson.” Earlier this week he explored the question, “Are you a Jewish writer?” 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…
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