Out and About: Remembering Walter Benjamin; Polanski Wins Big in Europe

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
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A new book fails to exonerate Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
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What accounts for the enduring fame of Walter Benjamin?
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And why isn’t Moses Mendelssohn similarly remembered?
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Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” has won the prize for best film at the European Film Awards, while Samuel Maoz’s “Lebanon” took home two other awards.
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Read new fiction from the Israeli Diaspora at ZEEK.
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The Eldridge Street Synagogue shows up in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”
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Elaine Kaufman, New York restaurateur and “salty den mother,” has died.
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The new issue of Pakn Treger from the Yiddish Book Center includes articles on children’s author Maurice Sendak, Yiddish poet Zishe Landau, and teaching Yiddish Literature in the Canadian Bible Belt.
"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
