Journalist, critic, pundit and all-around provocateur Christopher Hitchens died December 15 at the age of 62. The outpouring of appreciation (and criticism) has been immense, including this piece in the Forward by Shmuley Boteach. But the Forward recognized Hitchens long before his death for his considerable — and considerably polarizing — gifts. In 2002, Hitchens…
Crossposted from Haaretz Gary Bilu, the legendary head of Beit Zvi acting school and founder of the Be’er Sheva Theater, died Tuesday at the age of 67. Bilu, the recipient of the 2006 Israeli Theater Award for his life’s work, died at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv after a long illness. Bilu requested that his…
One of the major artists of the American Yiddish cultural world and an innovator in the art of Jewish papercutting, Tsirl Waletzky, died on December 8 at the age of 90. Over three decades, her many drawings, paintings and papercuts illustrated book covers, Yiddish children’s magazines, primers and textbooks, becoming nearly synonymous with the art…
When I met biologist Lynn Margulis, she spoke with such authority and passion, that I immediately dubbed her “Rabbi Lynn.” She would have laughed at that. At best, she thought of religion as a useful tribal activity of anthropoids, but one that could be superstitious and antithetical to the search for truth. When she heard…
On November 23, the Catalan singer Montserrat Figueras died at her home in Bellaterra, near Barcelona, at the age of 69. Together with her husband, the legendary early bowed strings master Jordi Savall, Montserrat brought Sephardic music to the attention of a wide and appreciative audience of listeners, many of whom were unlikely to have…
Evelyn Lauder, who pioneered the pink ribbon as the symbol of breast cancer awareness, has died. Lauder, the daughter-in-law of cosmetics queen Estee Lauder, died of ovarian cancer Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 75. Lauder was married to Leonard Lauder, the oldest son of Estee and chairman emeritus of the makeup corporation….
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree There seems to be no end to the writing of history books. Kindles, Nooks and the corner bookshops are thick with them. So numerous are brand new histories of this, that and the other thing that they threaten to crowd out and supplant the work of previous generations. But…
The niche narrows Hones one thin Until his bones Disclose him So wrote poet and sage Samuel Menashe in one of his numerous works addressing death, Menashe’s first Muse and greatest obsession. As he often mentioned in conversation, he became a poet at the age of 19, having survived the notoriously dangerous World War II…
די ווילנער דאָקטוירים יעקבֿ וויגאָדסקי און צמח שאַבאַד זענען אויך געווען געזעלשאַפֿטלעכע טוער.
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