WASHINGTON — A national task force on poverty, set up in June by a coalition of major Jewish groups, is calling for community action to “raise public awareness” of how federal budget cuts are affecting health and social service programs “and the people they serve” — but stops short of proposing a plan to lobby…
With this issue, Arts & Letters initiates a criticism section, which will rotate weekly between film, music, dance and art. We are proud to introduce our columnists, eight incisive cultural observers, with unique voices and singular perspectives. FILM Daphne Merkin, the author of the novel “Enchantment” and “Dreaming of Hitler,” an essay collection, is a…
Rashanim, an ensemble dedicated to the exploration of Jewish, Middle Eastern and improvised music, performs as part of Makor’s “Beyond Jazz” evening. Founded in 2000 by guitarist Jon Madof, the trio — Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on bass and Mathias Kunzli on drums and percussion — released its debut CD in April on John Zorn’s Tzadik…
Faded and unkempt, the Hugo Gellert murals in the Seward Park Houses on the Lower East Side of Manhattan are once again at the heart of a budding controversy. This week the co-op’s shareholders are voting — ballots were due Friday — on whether they will be plastered over as part of a modernization of…
Sloping down from the Carmel Mountains toward the Mediterranean Sea, the village of Fureidis was given its name, according to local legend, by a governor who arrived here during the British mandate. He called what was then a small, quiet village “Fureidis,” Arabic for “paradise.” Fureidis is one of the few Arab villages on Israel’s…
It is not uncommon to see a gaggle of NFL cheerleaders — covered up, of course, in unusually modest turtleneck sweaters and long skirts — lunching at one of the many kosher restaurants in Los Angeles. These former Los Angeles Raiders cheerleaders — Raiderettes, as they are called — are there to see one of…
The story is told of the newly religious Israeli who informs his boss that he isn’t coming to work the next day because it’s “Tesha be’Av.” The correct Hebrew name of the fast day, commemorating the destruction of the First and Second Temples, that was observed by many Jews this week is of course Tish’a…
An article in the July 18 issue of the Forward incorrectly reported that Senator Arlen Specter had not signed on to the Koby Mandell Act. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, supports the measure. A photo caption in the August 1 issue incorrectly identified the members of the rock band The Successors. They were, from right to…
Menachem Butler was in the fifth grade when his interest in genealogical research was born. A family-tree project for school had put him on the trail of an ancestor whom his father had always mentioned as a point of pride: Rabbi Shmuel Salant. Butler, now 19, found out that Salant for nearly 70 years was…
In what critics are describing as an unprecedented challenge to judicial power, the House of Representatives last week overwhelmingly approved two legislative amendments aimed at short-circuiting a pair of high-profile court rulings regarding church-state issues. In a 260-161 vote, the House approved an amendment to an appropriations bill July 23 that would prohibit the use…
In 1963, the same year that Beatle-mania was spreading across Europe, three Jewish students in the Polish city of Szczecin (sh’CHE-chin) started a rock band called The Successors. As the Polish youth began tearing at the seams of the restrictive Communist government, they became more and more attracted to the rock and roll songs written…
