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Culture Discovering Louisa May Alcott’s Jewish history on Portuguese tour
Louisa May Alcott was often told as a child that her dark hair and dark eyes came from her Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Her mother, Abigail May Alcott, who had similar coloring, had learned this from her father, Joseph May, a late 18th-century Boston businessman whose Portuguese Jewish ancestors immigrated to Sussex, England, just before 1500….
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Fast Forward Jewish Groups Try To Silence Storytime Reading Of ‘P Is For Palestine’
Jewish groups have issued a legal threat against a public library in New Jersey if librarians proceed with a public reading of a book called “P is for Palestine,” the Bridgewater Courier News reported Monday. The two groups – the Central Jersey Jewish Public Affairs Committee and the Zachor Legal Institute, a legal group that…
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Culture The Dangers Of Female Pleasure – And Rage. A Q&A With Jennifer Weiner
Jennifer Weiner, best-selling novelist, has been known to be outspoken about inequalities in publishing and in the consideration of women’s work. This is what Weiner told me she wants her obituary to read when we caught up last week. And unlike the obit your favorite male novelist is probably composing for himself, Weiner’s is 100%…
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Fast Forward Publisher Drops ‘How They Rule The World’ Book After Being Told It Had Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories
(JTA) — A major British publisher ceased producing copies of a Spanish author book, which critics said contains anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Penguin Random House UK on Thursday announced it would no longer print and ship Pedro Baños’ “How They Rule the World: The 22 Secret Strategies of Global Power,” which was published in English in…
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Culture Behind The Backlash: Ava Duvernay’s Central Park Five Series Prompts Anger At Linda Fairstein
In the days following the release of Netflix’s four-part series “When They See Us,” a call for justice swept the internet. The series, director Ava DuVernay’s dramatization of the infamous wrongful conviction of five black and Latino teens for the 1989 rape of a female jogger in Central Park, spawned a widespread demand that Linda…
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The Schmooze Shavuot, The Jewish Festival Of Sex, Books And Cheese Is Upon Us. Let’s Rage.
The ancient harvest festival of Shavuot, which begins this Saturday at sunset, is an all-night bacchanal of reading, arguing, and cheese. It’s a celebration of a lot of things: the grain harvest season, God’s giving of the Torah to the people of Israel, and the right to eat dairy. On Shavuot, we read the Book…
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The Schmooze New Book ‘Kushner, Inc’ Makes Wild Claims — But The Wildest Thing Is Reading About Javanka At All
A new book, “Kushner, Inc” by journalist Vicky Ward, calls itself “the first explosive book about Javanka and their infamous rise to power.” The gleaming hardcover, bearing the words “Greed. Ambition. Corruption.” promises to “dig [sic] beneath the myth the couple has created.” This is a case of beautifully coiffed snake eats tail — digging…
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Film & TV Ottessa Moshfegh Fangirled Out At Whoopi Goldberg’s House
Author Ottessa Moshfegh has defied the old warning, “never meet your heroes.” She wasn’t disappointed. Those who’ve read Moshfegh’s second novel, 2018’s “My Year of Rest and Relaxation,” won’t have much trouble guessing who that hero is. Like her book’s unnamed protagonist, who spends a year fettered to her bed self-prescribing medication and binging films…
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Looking Forward How a cup of coffee keeps one man feeling close to the hostages in Gaza
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