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The Myth of Authenticity
American Jews of a certain class and culture have the scene engraved in their memories: Woody Allen?s Alvy Singer in ?Annie Hall? at Annie?s goyish parents? house, suddenly seen through their eyes as a Hasid, in a long black coat and peyes. It?s a hilarious moment: Allen imagining how he is seen by non-Jews, giving…
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Out of Africa: Hazanut and the Blues
I listen to music as an act of perceiving history. I am listening to hear the voices of ghosts from bygone days, who sang their songs before I was born. And when I sing the music of my own family?s past, I feel that I am receiving a surer transmission from the recesses of history…
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The Marginally Jewish Reader: Nathanael West
Once upon a time, David Mamet picked up Abraham Cahan?s ?The Imported Bridegroom,? and in the course of perusing the book, he later wrote, ?I discovered in myself the racial type of the lapsed Talmudist.? The first time I read of Mamet?s discovery, in the preface to the playwright?s ?Writing in Restaurants,? I cheered. I…
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A Romanian Jewish Writer Rediscovered
The mission of any historical museum is to recuperate what might be lost or forgotten by posterity, and Paris?s Shoah Memorial, which bills itself as a ?research, information, and awareness-raising center,? succeeds brilliantly with a new exhibit about Romanian-French poet, critic and filmmaker Benjamin Fondane. An eponymous exhibit about Fondane, Benjamin Fondane, which opened on…
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Standing up for El Al?s Good Name
Samuel Sherman writes from Voorhees, N.J.: ?I?m curious about the name of Israel?s airline, El Al. As far as I know (which probably isn?t enough) el and al are both prepositions in Hebrew, meaning ?to,? and ?on,? ?above? or ?about,? respectively. How can one preposition be the object of another preposition? Can al be a…
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2009 in Art and Culture
Our Forward 50 issue identifies the people who we feel are interesting, influential and important in the Jewish world. But although it?s people who make culture, it?s what they make, not who they are, that matters. Below is a new annual feature, the Forward Fives, celebrating the cultural insights, experiences and productions of the past…
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A Wedding Gift for Mom
It?s five months before my 48-year-old, tree-hugging, hippie sister?s wedding, and my mother and I are in my girlhood bedroom in Wilmington, Del., talking about tradition, family and, most important, bridal wear. ?People ask me what Beth is going to be wearing, but I don?t know,? Mom says, as she smoothes plastic over her mother-of-the-bride…
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Saying Grace in Tel Aviv
It wasn?t all that difficult to be a vegetarian while I was on a ?young journalists? exchange in Israel in 1990, during the first intifada. Eating was largely a free-range affair, and the meatless choices ? at least if one also ate eggs, cheese and fish ? were numerous and good, far more varied than…
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Conservatives Wooing Traditionally Liberal Canadian Jews
Leaflets mailed to homes in heavily Jewish districts of Canada?s major cities last November struck with uncharacteristic ferocity at the political party that Canadian Jews have long favored. Canada?s Liberal Party, the Conservative Party broadsides charged, had ?opposed defunding Hamas and asked that Hezbollah be delisted as a terrorist organization.? The Liberals had ?willingly participated?…
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Hebrews for the Holidays
Neil Diamond, the well-known crooner, and Allan Rich, an accomplished lyricist, are hoping their newly recorded songs, ?Cherry Cherry Christmas? and ?Make It Christmas,? become hits even as the men have been busy with their own December tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles. A number of Jewish songwriters are trying to do what many of their…
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Yid Lit: Abby Sher
Abby Sher lost an aunt and her father before she was bat mitzvah age, and became obsessed with preventing others? deaths. She began picking up sharp objects in the street to prevent cars from running over them. And she found solace in repetition, so she prayed and prayed, and prayed and prayed and prayed. In…
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