Why was Emma Goldman arrested at the Forward in 1916? Blame a law cited by the Supreme Court Tuesday
The abortion case argued Tuesday referenced the 19th-century Comstock Act. Goldman faced related charges for talking about contraception
The abortion case argued Tuesday referenced the 19th-century Comstock Act. Goldman faced related charges for talking about contraception
This Saturday, travel back in time to the innocent days before Facebook and Twitter, when in order to have an argument with a stranger, you actually had to do it in person. The Newberry Library’s annual Bughouse Square Debates revive a glorious era in the park’s history, back in the early 20th century, when socialists,…
At an early Passover seder last week at the City Winery, the poet Kevin Coval was, to the surprise of no one, assigned the Hagaddah reading of the Rebellious Child, an updating of the old-school Wicked Son. It’s been Coval’s nature to question all forms of established dogma, going back to his Hebrew school days…
Emma Goldman (1869–1940), the Lithuanian Jewish anarchist, was widely known in America as Red Emma for her defense of free speech, labor protests, women’s rights and birth control. Although she was deported from the United States in 1919, starting in the 1970s increasing numbers of historians and readers have been drawn to Goldman’s personality and…
Keira Knightly talks about playing psychoanalysis pioneer, Jung patient and Holocaust victim Sabina Speilrein in the new film “A Dangerous Method.” Skeptical of JDate’s algorithm for picking Mr. or Mrs. right? Try “J sites,” the online Jewish dating service that has good old-fashioned matchmakers do the pairing. There is a new biography of original “occupier”…
Here’s an unusual story: anarchists in search of order. Bill Weinberg, a former WBAI radio host, is working to save the Libertarian Book Club, founded by Jewish and Italian anarchists in 1946. A recent ad in The Brooklyn Rail reads: “[I]n dire straits: about to lose our office at the old Peace Pentagon (339 Lafayette)…
Jewish women have a long and storied history in the American labor and worker’s rights movement, from Emma Goldman to Rose Schneiderman to Betty Friedan (yep, she was a union rabble-rouser first) and beyond. This excellent article at the Jewish Women’s Archive gives a partial overview of Jewish women’s involvement in the movement: the good,…
Michael David Lukas’s first book, “The Oracle of Stamboul,” is now available. His blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish Learning’s Author Blog series. For more information on the series, please visit: I’ve been thinking a lot these past few months about…
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