Out and About: Israeli Music for Syrian Protestors; The Shame of Playing Shylock

Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
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The Independent takes a look at Habonim, the Socialist Zionist youth group that was once home to Mike Leigh, David Baddiel and Sacha Baron Cohen.
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The Brooklyn Rail revisits the work of Russian Jewish filmmaker Dziga Vertov, on the occasion of a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.
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Israeli singer Amir Benayoun (profiled in the Forward here) has recorded a CD in Arabic that has been passed on to Syrian protestors.
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The shame of Shylock: Patrick Stewart, Anthony Sher and others tell what it’s like to play Shakespeare’s most infamous role.
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At the Jewish Week, Steve Lipman profiles Sacha Pecaric, a Croatian-born Orthodox rabbi who has translated some 30 classical Jewish texts into Polish.
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At Tablet, Harold Heft profiles Chaim Tannenbaum, longtime collaborator of the Wainwright-McGarrigle folksinging family.
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Joseph Berger profiles Bel Kaufman — writer, teacher and granddaughter of Sholom Aleichem — on her 100th birthday.
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Does Bob Dylan’s upcoming concert in Ramat Gan mean he’s a Zionist?
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Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” opened this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
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Adam Levin has won the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award for his recent novel, “The Instructions.”
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The Spanish Island of Majorca confronts its Jewish past.
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How screenwriter Dan Fogelman went from writing TV Guide blurbs to movies for Steve Carrell.
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.
