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Culture The Streisand Has Two Faces
Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand By William J. Mann Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 567 pages, $30 It was hardly an accident that 22-year-old Barbra Streisand seemed to embody the comedian Fanny Brice so perfectly in the 1964 Broadway musical “Funny Girl.” According to celebrity biographer William J. Mann, the role was deliberately tailored to fit her…
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Culture The Way I Was
As a Jewish gay man, I know that Barbra Streisand should be a double icon. A strong woman with a knack for musicals, she’s in the gay pantheon right next to Audrey Hepburn and, l’havdil, Madonna. And for Jews, of course, she’s the one who made it big, and did it her way: no name…
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Culture On a Clear Day You Can See Flatbush
Barbra Streisand has a doll shop in her basement. Part of an old-timey underground “street” — complete with clapboard storefronts and faux-stone walls — built beneath the dream home featured in her 2010 coffee table book, “My Passion for Design,” the showroom for antique playthings fills a void from Streisand’s childhood: “I never played with…
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News The Loss
The email had arrived that morning from Rivky, a woman who was like a sister to me. In the past few months, though, there had been silence between us. When I first saw Rivky’s name in my inbox, I felt dread. I knew why she had written and what she wanted to say to me….
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News Changing Face of Brighton Beach
Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood last March hosted a celebration of Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Held at the National, a sprawling, glitzy entertainment palace off Brighton Beach Avenue, the celebration attracted an enthusiastic crowd of immigrants from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. Under stage lights flashing red and green, lavishly costumed performers danced and sang to…
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Breaking News Oops! Candidate Frets Over ‘Negrohood’ Crime
Even with tools like spell check and predictive text, a good once-over can never hurt. New York Assembly candidate Ben Akselrod, who is running against Democrat Steven Cymbrowitz in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn, learned that the hard way. Last week, The Friends of Ben Akselrod sent out a mailer that read that crime…
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Opinion Shelly Silver Dented in Albany Scandal
New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver is under fire over what the local tabloids are calling a “coverup” of sex allegations against a Brooklyn political boss. The Orthodox Jewish speaker of the State Assembly doesn’t usually get front-page play, despite being one of the two or three most powerful people in Albany. It’s likely…
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Breaking News Leiby Kletzky Killer Gets 40 Years
The murderer of 8-year-old Orthodox Brooklyn boy Leiby Kletzky has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison, the AP reported today. The sentencing comes weeks after Levi Aron, 36, pleaded guilty to the July 2011 killing. “G-d willing, the sentencing of Levi Aron today will finally remove the spotlight from this tragedy and…
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Fast Forward Was the viral Ta-Nehisi Coates interview a hit piece or fair play? A journalism ethics expert weighs in.
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Culture How my odious cousin Roy Cohn was responsible for creating Donald Trump — and me
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Culture New conspiracy theory just dropped — Jews are causing the hurricanes
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Sports 5 Jewish things about the Mets — and why Jewish fans adore them
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish דער אתרוג ווי אַ סגולה צו האָבן קינדער — און נאָך סוכּות־טראַדיציעסThe etrog as a charm to bear children, and other Sukkot traditions
ייִדן האָבן באַשיט די ערד פֿון דער סוכּה מיט פֿײַנעם געלן זאַמד
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Opinion On Yom Kippur, my brother-in-law is still a hostage. How do I atone for that?
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Fast Forward Ta-Nehisi Coates says Harris funding Gaza war as first Black female president would be ‘nightmare’
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Fast Forward Family recovers Monet pastel generations after Nazi looting
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