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: Saying New Things About Old Episodes
Earlier this week, Dr. Jonathan Sarna wrote about writing his most recent book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” in Jerusalem. His 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: When…
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Making a ‘New Jerusalem’ in D.C.
Despite a title that sounds like a grad school dissertation, and pontifications that would make a third-year philosophy major proud, “New Jerusalem: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza” keeps theatergoers surprisingly engaged. In fact, the opening night audience at Theater J took in the fast-paced courtroom-style drama with at times audible gasps and guffaws. Theater…
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Looking Back: March 23, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward With dozens of detectives on the case, the police currently have no suspects and no clues about who threw a bomb into the home of Judge Otto Rosalsky. The judge doesn’t believe any of the theories the police have put forward. The police presented, without evidence, the theory that…
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Kehinde Wiley Paints Israelis in Color
Most articles about the artist Kehinde Wiley begin with a line recounting his accomplishments — more than 20 solo shows in galleries and museums around the world, studios in three cities, work that sells for as much as $250,000 — followed by a sly mention of how young he is (35). Yes, Wiley is impressive….
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Books Jewish Humor on ‘Treasure Island’
Treasure Island!!! By Sara Levine Europa Editions, 172 pages, $15.00 There are as many Jewish humors as there are funny Jews, which is to say that there are 12 — and half of them haven’t been good in years. Many essentialist definitions of Jewish humor, such as the comedy of outsiders, or the comedy of…
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Books Author Blog: Writing the Civil War in Jerusalem
Dr. Jonathan Sarna’s newest book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews,” is now available. His 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: “You are working on what?” most of the…
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Time to Come Clean on Shoah Role
It can take 70 years for some French trains to run on time. And even then, you can’t rely on them. In February, French author Alain Lipietz reacted with scorn to the announcement that the SNCF, the French national railroad, intends to open its archives for the period of 1939–1945. He declared that the SNCF…
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Deciphering Secrets of the ‘Patio Tomb’
Some of you may have heard or read in recent days about the “Patio Tomb” in Jerusalem’s southern neighborhood of Talpiot, a Second-Temple-period cave, now situated beneath an apartment building, in which a team of archaeologists sponsored by the University of North Carolina claims to have found the earliest known Christian burial site — indeed,…
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Fighting Fiercely Over Jewish Recipes
American Jews are no strangers to competition. One might even say it’s the coin of the realm, especially when it comes to academics, the law, sports and synagogue politics. All the same, it might very well surprise you, as it did me, to learn that competition also encompasses the realm of food. No, I don’t…
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Geleh: A Love Story
Translated by Miriam Hoffman and Beverly Koenigsberg This story originally appeared in the Forverts of July 30, 1993. My father was at one time a handsome and elegant young man — tall, with broad shoulders and a forelock of curly red hair. He loved flirting with the girls. He told me that many young women…
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Cultural Bulwarks Against Neo-Nazism
The February 1945 firebombing of Dresden has long been a rallying point for neo-Nazis. Indeed, prominent Holocaust deniers have been assiduous in symbolically conflating Dresden with Hiroshima as the real crematoria of World War II. Neo-Nazis have swarmed this ancient capital of Saxony for every anniversary of the bombing since the reunification of Germany in…
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Yiddish שפּילן מיט פֿײַל־און־בויגן און אַנדערע ל״ג־בעומר־מנהגיםPlaying with bows and arrows and other Lag BaOmer shtetl customs
געוויסע עקספּערטן האַלטן, אַז מע דאַרף באַטראַכטן ל״ג־בעומר ווי אַ פֿרילינגדיקן מײַ־פֿעסטיוואַל
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News ‘Don’t give up on us now’: Israel peace summit convenes thousands to aim for elusive progress
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Fast Forward A GOP lawmaker tried to put a Holocaust denier on New Hampshire’s Holocaust education board
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Fast Forward NH lawmaker reprimanded for ‘final solution’ joke aimed at Jewish colleague