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
Write, Pray, Swim, Bike, Run
Earlier this week, Karol Neilsen wrote about the inefficiency of writing and how not to quit. Her new memoir, “Black Elephants,” was just released. Her 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…
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Books National Book Awards Look to Past and Future
“Take the time to be brief.” That’s the advice Edith Pearlman, one of five finalists for the National Book Award in fiction, wants to give to young writers. Pearlman’s book, “Binocular Vision,” did not win, perhaps because a collection of short stories has not won since Andrea Barrett’s collection, “Ship Fever,” was victorious in 1996….
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Emulate Our Ancestors
In his commentary on Chayei Sarah, Avrum Burg reflects on the life and nature of the Father of the Jewish people, Avraham. Burg points out that Avraham is not only pious and loving to God, but concerned for people of other nations. In addition to cultivating his divine relationship, he also wants to engage with…
The Latest
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Books Q&A: Sara Y. Aharon on Jews of Afghanistan
“From Kabul to Queens: The Jews of Afghanistan and Their Move to the United States” by Sara Y. Aharon tells the story of Afghanistan’s Jewish community and its resettlement in the United States. The American Sephardi Federation held a book launch party November 3 at the Center for Jewish History. Before the event, Aharon, whose…
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Jewish Filmmaker Goes Uptown
Like most Jewish camp staff members over 21, Mark Blackman isn’t in it for the money. Blackman, 27, enjoys working with kids at Maryland’s Camp Airy, as well as taking walks near the mountains. He calls it “home to me.” But more than anything, Mark Blackman has returned almost every summer since 1998 because camp…
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Looking Back: November 25, 2011
100 Years Ago in the Forward Nineteen-year-old Solomon Fruchtzweig and 20-year-old Leyzer Gleyzer, two known pimps from Sosnowiec, Poland, were arrested last week in Krakow for attempting to smuggle women from Germany to Egypt. After admitting their guilt, Fruchtzweig and Gleyzer fingered another resident, Chana Greenstein, who had promised the two men 100 rubles per…
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Books Never Quit on a Hill
On Monday, Karol Nielsen wrote about the inefficiency of writing. Her 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: A friend met an aspiring agent who had worked in publishing and recommended…
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Music Israel’s Gender Wars: A Week of Changes
It was small, low-key and the participants numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands. But a crowd of Israeli women took to the streets to speak out — or, more accurately, sing out — against the continuing attacks by religious extremists on women’s right to be seen and heard freely in the public square. The…
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Books Jewish Authors Honored at Canadian Literary Awards
Canadian Jewish writers — both living and deceased — were honored today at Canada’s 2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards ceremony in Toronto. The Governor General’s Awards are the oldest Canadian prize for literature (in both English and French) and are organized by the Canada Council for the Arts. David Bezmozgis and Jonathan Garfinkel, both 38,…
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Chayei Sarah—The Life of Sarah
Genesis 23:1–25:18 The Strength to Concede Chayei Sarah, The Life of Sarah, is an interesting portion. It’s not unusual to find that a portion of the Scripture dealing with death begins with a word connected to life. Thus “The Life of Sarah” deals with the death of the matriarch at age one hundred twenty-seven; similiarly,…
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Books Why Vasily Grossman Still Matters
“Life and Fate,” the 900-page opus by Vasily Semyonovich Grossman, is important not only as literature, but also as a history of Stalinist Russia. Since 2006 it has been available as a paperback from NYRB Classics, recently turned into a radio play on U.K.’s BBC 4, and a newly minted paperback can now be found…
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