This is the Forward’s coverage of books and literature, including both non-fictional and fictional works.
Books
The Latest
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Books An Actress for The Ages
Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt By Robert Gottlieb Yale University Press, 233 pages, $25 Robert Gottlieb?s biography of Sarah Bernhardt is the first volume in ?Jewish Lives,? a ?major new series? being offered by Yale University Press. But in what sense did this most legendary of actresses live a Jewish life? Her mother was…
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Books Marjorie at Fifty-Five
This fall marks the 55th anniversary of the publication of Herman Wouk?s ?Marjorie Morningstar,? the novel that at its height ? what The Nation called the ?Age of Wouk? ? sold more copies than any American novel since ?Gone With the Wind.? ” photo-credit=”Image by EVELYN ROTZ (9/19/1924 – 9/6/2010) B??H,? BARA SAPIR” src=”https://images.forwardcdn.com/image/675x/center/images/cropped/grandma2-091510-1425715955.jpg”] ?Marjorie,?…
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Books Kosher, By Design
Orthodox by design By Jeremy Stolow University of California Press, 288 pages, $41.95 Despite the much-touted death of the physical book, the Orthodox Jewish publishing industry is booming. Perhaps because of the prohibition against using electricity on holidays or on the Sabbath, the ?ArtScroll revolution? is well under way. ?Orthodox by Design? by Jeremy Stolow…
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Books When Traveling in America Meant Trouble
Crossposted From Under The Fig Tree For centuries, taking to the road has been the stuff of grand adventure and equally grand literature. From Benjamin of Tudela’s 12th century “Book of Travels” to Jack Kerouac’s 1957 “On the Road,” travel has been bound up with freedom and an enhanced sense of self. But what if…
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Books A Historical Goose Chase for the Real Jewish Jesus
It seems obvious to note that Jesus — like Don Juan, Oedipus and Count Dracula — has a cultural life having little to do with his original narrative. Although it is now widely believed that he did exist, Jesus is so buried in centuries of Christian tradition that in 1906 Albert Schweitzer declared the search…
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Books Why There Are No Israeli Superheroes
Uri Fink, who 30 years ago created Israel’s first superhero, in the form of Sabraman, has a theory about why comic book superheroes have caught on only in America. “It’s naive just thinking people will go out and fight the bad guys out of the goodness of their hearts,” he told the Forward. “It’s Americans’…
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Books Susan Shapiro’s Book Becomes a Book Mitzvah
Last night, Susan Shapiro’s latest novel, “Overexposed” (St. Martins, August 2010), was “Book Mitzvahed” in an elaborate and touching candle lighting ceremony at Greenwich Village’s Arte Restaurant. A hilarious book about the intertwined lives of two women who are battling big-city ambitions, “Overexposed” took 13 years to be published. In the interim, Shapiro published successful…
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Books An Advertising Pioneer Who Predicted Israel’s Publicity Woes
Today, the name of pioneering advertising executive Albert Lasker is mostly associated with the Lasker Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports medical research. But as a forthcoming biography by Jeffrey Cruikshank and Arthur Schultz points out, Lasker himself was more likely to self-identify as a “propagandist” than as a philanthropist. “The Man Who Sold America:…
Most Popular
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News What We Know About Jeffrey Epstein’s Childhood
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News Antisemitism group keeps board member who emailed Epstein on the legality of transporting minors for sex
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Politics AIPAC fails its first test in the midterms
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Fast Forward Mamdani appoints Phylisa Wisdom, progressive Jewish leader, to run Office to Combat Antisemitism
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַ קורס וועגן די שפּריכווערטער געזאַמלט דורך די אַנ־סקי עקספּעדיציעסA course on the Yiddish proverbs collected through the An-Ski expeditions
די ווערטלעך האָט פֿאַרשריבן דער סאָוועטישער פֿאָלקלאָריסט אַבא לעוו בעת די עקספּעדיציעס איבער וואָלין
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Opinion In Trump’s instinct to punish and desecrate, a rejection of the values of King David
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Culture Why Bad Bunny’s halftime show delighted New York Jews of a certain age
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Yiddish World Elie Wiesel as an American phenomenon and a family man
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