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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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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Berlin Film Festival Gets Serious, Mostly
After an impressive few years of Israeli films showcased prominently at the Berlin Film Festival, there was a conspicuous dearth of Israeli fare this year. The Berlinale, which ran from February 9 to 19, has a reputation for tackling political issues. This year, it decisively chose to highlight films from hotbed countries, including Egypt, Yemen…
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Serenading the Bobov Bride
Photos and video from the wedding of Avraham Yehoshua Heschel Halberstam, a son of the rebbe of the Bobov Hasidic dynasty, to Chana Sara Baila Friedman posted on this Chabad website, offer a fascinating peek into a world that is all but invisible to those who are not part of it. Still, even the most…
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Books Alba Arikha and Her Artist Father
It was appropriate that the moderator for Alba Arikha’s talk last week at London’s Jewish Book Week was the war correspondent Janine di Giovanni. Di Giovanni is noted for preserving the human dimension in the complexities of conflict. Likewise, “Major/Minor,” Arikha’s recently published memoir, digs deep beneath the surface to explore her tempestuous relationship with…
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Looking Back: March 9, 2012
100 Years Ago in the Forward When Celia Kuperstein saw smoke and flames pouring out of the windows of her Brooklyn apartment, she dashed inside to rescue her three children. Sadly, she never made it out. Her charred corpse was eventually found by firefighters. In a twist of fate, a neighbor who saw the fire…
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Books Author Blog: The Unlikely In-Laws
Earlier this week, Michelle Haimoff discussed 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: The hardest thing about breaking up with the…
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Books What the Kids Are Doing With Their Lives
Michelle Haimoff’s debut novel, “These Days Are Ours,” is now available. 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 realized late in life that my parents weren’t your typical…
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Psoy Korolenko’s 21st Century Humor
It’s about two hours before their show at the JCC in Manhattan, and I’m having dinner with Psoy Korolenko and Daniel Kahn, the duo known as the Unternationale. As a solo performer, Korolenko has been winning fans in the United States, mostly at clubs and gatherings catering to young Russian émigrés and at university campuses….
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Jewish Creator of Modern German Police
As World War I neared its end, Germany turned its focus to internal security. Serious unrest in Berlin during the summer of 1918 led the Prussian Ministry of the Interior to make a surprising decision. Bernhard Weiss, a little-known Jewish war hero and recipient of the Iron Cross First Class, was ordered to leave the…
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The Shame Kittel
The Kittel Collection is a series of clothing pieces that explores the different ways clothing is used as a vehicle for meaning and identity within our tradition and literature. The kittel is a simple, white, garment used as a burial shroud, and customarily worn by men on various Jewish holy days. Each month, The Sisterhood…
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