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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Philip Levine To Become New Poet Laureate
At 83, Philip Levine is one of the oldest poets laureate and his work is certainly the most humble in tone from among that august group. Though he now lives in Fresno, Calif., and has spent time in New York City, he was born in Detroit to Russian Jewish immigrant parents and has long identified…
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John Lennon and the Jews
John Lennon & the Jews: A Philosophical Rampage By Ze’ev Maghen CreateSpace, 296 pages, $12.50 As a rule, I wouldn’t agree to review a book with “John Lennon” in its title. I also wouldn’t review a self-published book. (Although publishing one’s own work is no crime, it does tend to indicate that no one else…
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To Test or Not, for This Rare Bone Marrow Disease?
When Haley Well was born in 2006, doctors were initially afraid that the baby wouldn’t survive. “She was so blue that they thought she wasn’t getting any oxygen,” recalled her mother, Jordana Well. Early blood work revealed that the newborn had a dangerously low platelet count and her blood wasn’t clotting properly. Genetic tests then…
The Latest
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As Testing Grows, So Do Questions About Its Scope
On a rainy day in May, 46 people had their blood drawn in the basement of the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan as part of a community screening for Jewish genetic diseases. Blood samples from the young married couples and individuals in committed relationships were then shipped off to diagnostic…
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Books Jews and Chinese Food
Michael Levy is the author of “Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating with China’s Other Billion.” His 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: My therapist once told me a joke:…
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Induced Stem Cells Promise ‘A Whole New Way To Do Medicine’
In Petri dishes inside Dr. Lorenz Studer’s lab, translucent clumps of human cells multiply in nutrient baths the color of red Kool-Aid. Under a microscope, the cells look round and gelatinous, like mounds of miniature eyeballs. “You can’t tell by looking at them, but there’s something wrong in the genetic code,” said Studer, a professor…
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Ghosts in the Living Room
There’s a dizzying feeling as you step into “Living Room,” Israeli artist Maya Zack’s art installation at New York’s Jewish Museum — not least because of the colored 3-D glasses you’re invited to put on at the entrance. “Living Room,” which opened at the museum July 31, is an audiovisual installation composed of four large-scale,…
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Books Our Good Friends the Essermans
Earlier this week, Melissa Fay Greene wrote about the adoption of her daughter, Helen, from Ethiopia, and telling jokes at church. Her new book, “No Biking in the House Without a Helmet,” is now available. Her posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish…
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Young Mom Chooses Breast Surgery To Secure Family’s Future
Jon Steinberg had always been interested in tracing his family’s genetic ancestry. So, in April of last year, when the California genetic testing supplier 23andMe offered a sale, Steinberg, president of the technology website BuzzFeed, convinced his wife Jill to spit into one of the company’s DNA-collecting tubes. Little did he know that this saliva…
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Legend of Moses’ Death Sets the Example for an Easy Exit
Julius Karash writes from Kansas City, Mo.: “Today, a family member called my father and told him that his 94-year-old brother died this morning. My uncle had been up and about, performing his usual routine, and then suddenly died. “The family member told my father that the manner in which my uncle had passed away…
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Gaucher Disease Patients Get New Hope From Drugs
Cynthia Frank was a child when doctors diagnosed her with leukemia. Several blood tests later, they changed their prognosis: She had Gaucher disease, not cancer. That meant she had a longer lifespan, but her quality of life had likely peaked. It was the mid-1970s, and, with no remedy for the rare, inherited metabolic disorder, Frank…
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