Jenna Weissman Joselit
By Jenna Weissman Joselit
-
Culture A Tale of Two Flags, Confederate and Zionist
Most of the time we pay it little mind, but now and again it surfaces with a vengeance and takes center stage. At once artifact and symbol, decorative motif and rallying cry, it flutters in the wind, is waved up and down and is attended to with all manner of ceremony. I’m referring, of course,…
-
Culture How Jews Parted With Possessions Before Craigslist
Got stuff? If you’re anything like me, your closets bulge with clothes you’ve haven’t worn in years, your kitchen shelves are crowded with useless gadgets and the furniture in your living room is so worn out that it gives new – and literal – meaning to thread count. I’d say it’s time to de-clutter and…
-
Art What’s Under Your Fashion Exhibit?
When the State of Israel first came into being 67 years ago, it harbored certain aspirations: It hoped to be not only a national homeland for the Jews and a light unto the nations, but also the fashion mecca of the Middle East. Most of us are familiar with the first two beau ideals; the…
-
Art Why the Status of Judaica Is Waning
Last month’s column, as you may recall, made much of Judaica collectors who prefer to sell rather than donate their holdings. No sooner had I made that claim than a number of readers as well as colleagues duly informed me that I was barking up the wrong tree. Dolefully, they pointed out that even if…
-
Culture Let Our Judaica Go!
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we know and how we know it, or, to put a fancy name to it, the processes by which academic disciplines are constituted and knowledge is organized. The more I mull, the more it seems to me that serendipity, curiosity and passion are key components of that…
-
Culture How Synagogue Music Breaks Down Barriers Between Denominations
We may fret about declining enrollments in rabbinical seminaries and the ever-rising tide of intermarriage, yet one aspect of the contemporary Jewish experience should lift our spirits rather than roil them: music. From monthly concerts and annual festivals that cast a spotlight on the creativity that pulses throughout the community to Shabbat services where, week…
-
Culture Je Suis Dreyfus
Hardly a day goes by without France figuring prominently in the news. So widespread and insistent is this coverage that it calls to mind an earlier occasion in which goings-on in Paris seized hold of the American imagination. I refer, of course, to l’affaire Dreyfus. Then, as now, the latest technologies of information — postcards,…
-
Culture What Ari Roth and Theater J Could Have Learned From the Jewish Conciliation Board
These days, privacy seems to have gone the way of the rotary phone, overtaken by the contemporary yearning for transparency, accountability and the ubiquitous selfie. Under the circumstances, it’s no surprise that conflict — be it domestic or institutional — is increasingly played out in the public sphere. It’s not enough that we now know…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Israel has a decade of lessons to offer.
- 2
Film & TV Why ‘The Brutalist’ resonated so deeply with me
- 3
Culture They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka
- 4
Music For Bob Dylan’s biographer, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a dream come true — even if it’s mostly fiction
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture The crucial Bob Dylan question that ‘A Complete Unknown’ fails to answer
-
Opinion My favorite Jewish Christmas tradition: do a mitzvah for children in need
-
Fast Forward US ambassador to Israel calls Gaza famine warning ‘inaccurate,’ prompting review
-
News RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Israel has a decade of lessons to offer.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
