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 Talking Montreal, Hasids and Bagels With ‘Mystics of Mile End’ Author Sigal Samuel
Sigal Samuel and I grew up in the same city, attended the same college and ended up in the same office. Before that momentous event, our paths had never crossed. (Full disclosure: since then, we have become attached at the hip — or the byline.) I grew up in a secular, if proudly Sephardic, environment….
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Books Why Secular-to-Orthodox Memoirs Matter
“Writing is a miserable, awful business. Stay with it. It is better than anything in the world.” This quote from Ann Patchett sums up my feelings about writing — and it’s also how I feel about my chosen religious lifestyle. I grew up in a secular Jewish home and, as a young adult, was drawn…
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Books ‘The Mystics of Mile End’ Takes You Inside Hasidic Montreal
The Mystics of Mile End, Forward editor Sigal Samuel’s debut novel about a dysfunctional Jewish family, will be published by HarperCollins on October 13. Told from multiple perspectives, the story takes place in an iconic Montreal neighborhood that is home to hipsters and Hasidic Jews. In this excerpt, we see the family and their neighbors…
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Books ‘Series of Unfortunate Events’ Author Gives $1M to Planned Parenthood
Daniel Handler is finally trying to make the world a less unfortunate place. The Jewish author of “A Series of Unfortunate Events” and his wife, illustrator Lisa Brown, have pledged a million dollars to Planned Parenthood, . Handler, known to readers under the pen-name Lemony Snicket, tweeted out the news on Tuesday afternoon: .@lisabrowndraws &…
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Books ‘Eating Delancey’ — and Enjoying Every Morsel
— what a super name for a book. I’ve had this relatively new volume by Aaron Rezny and Jordan Schaps on my desk for a little while now, and I keep dipping back into it because it’s so rich in delicious tidbits about the Jewish foodways of New York’s Lower East Side. It’s kind of…
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Books Is Israeli Children’s Book About Gaza Kittens Guilty of ‘Paw-Washing’?
My Facebook newsfeed is always alive with kittens, but last week it was alive with political kittens. Israeli author Nurit Sternberg has written a children’s book called “,” about two kittens “rescued” from last summer’s fighting zone in Gaza and brought to Israel by the IDF soldier Matan Meshi. Both the kittens and Meshi happen…
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Books Taste Testing ‘Honey & Co.’
This is an occasional column in which the writer evaluates a cookbook by making some of its recipes, sharing the dishes with friends and asking her guests what they think of the results. She recently cooked her way through “Honey & Co: the Cookbook,” by Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer (Little, Brown and Company). Itamar…
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Books ‘Vilna Vegetarian’ and Me
Born in in 1910, my grandmother Rachela Pupko Krinsky Melezin was a Vilner through and through. When I told her, during college, that I was becoming vegetarian — that the days of devouring her kreplach and piroshki were over — she took it as most Jewish grandmothers would. I wish I could have directed her…
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News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
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Opinion Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear
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Film & TV How Jon Stewart evolved on Israel — at least on ‘The Daily Show’
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Opinion I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Trump fired a commissioner over bad jobs numbers. Nixon targeted a ‘Jewish cabal’ at the same agency
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Looking Forward That time my violin teacher tried to convert me to Christianity
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Fast Forward UK’s largest Jewish group calls Israeli aid to Gaza ‘long overdue,’ months after disciplining members for criticizing Israel
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivors say latest hostage videos recall their own condition 80 years ago
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