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Culture God Bless Irving Berlin!
Editor’s Note; This article was originally published in the Forward on September 20, 2012. To some lovers of classical American song, it may seem paradoxical that the Tin Pan Alley genius who created such goyish holiday classics as “White Christmas” and “Easter Parade” was born Israel Isidore Beilin in Belarus, Russia, the son of a…
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News A facelift at 40 for a beloved mural of Chicago Jewish life
If you had to stand outside through 40 years of Chicago winters, you wouldn’t look so good either. That’s why a beloved piece of Chicago public art, the Chicago Jewish Mural, just underwent a major, much-needed renovation. Four decades ago, artists, friends and activists, Cynthia Weiss and Miriam Socoloff, created a glass mosaic mural that…
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Breaking News Former Jewish Studies Association presidents alarmed by response to shamed sociologist
Eleven past presidents of a prominent Jewish studies organization published a letter this week expressing concerns about the recent resignation of the group’s immediate past president. Noam Pianko, a historian who chairs the Jewish Studies department at the University of Washington, resigned from his position as president of the Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) on…
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News This Jewish filmmaker with autism has one big question for Jews with disabilities
Benjamin Rosloff, an aspiring Jewish filmmaker living with autism, was filming a bar mitzvah in Port Washington, NY. But the young boy getting bar mitzvahed didn’t say the prayers or read the Torah with his own voice. He also had autism, and relied on an augmentative speech device to communicate. “I couldn’t tell whether the…
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News ‘A lot of work to do’: A Black female rabbi on the anti-racist progress the Jewish community has, and hasn’t, made
Rav Tiferet Berenbaum is a busy woman these days, but she will absolutely and happily find time to slot you in for a phone call while she runs out to get coffee for herself and her fellow rabbis. The pandemic has not slowed her duties: in addition to her usual work as a clergy member…
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News Jewish advocacy group taps new CEO whose previous nonprofit was involved in $57M fraud scheme
Gideon Taylor was selected to succeed JCRC’s longtime executive Rabbi Michael Miller, who is stepping down in June after more than 36 years
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News Why do the Jews of India call Passover ‘The holiday of the covered clay pot with the sour liquid’?
The Bene Israel, India’s largest Jewish community, doesn’t call Passover Passover. The word in their language, Marathi, is “Anashi Dhakaicha San,” which means “The Holiday of the Closing of the Anas.” San is the word for holiday, and anas refers to a sour liquid in a pot. It makes sense that the Marathi word for…
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News How is this White House Seder different from all others?
The Biden administration is hosting a virtual Passover Seder open to the general public on Thursday in a move to expand its outreach to the broader American Jewish community, the White House told the Forward on Wednesday. Douglas Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and a Member of the Tribe, is expected to…
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Music For Bob Dylan’s biographer, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a dream come true — even if it’s mostly fiction
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Culture They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka
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Culture ‘A Complete Unknown’ proves that one thing about Bob Dylan will certainly endure
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Film & TV Why ‘The Brutalist’ resonated so deeply with me
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Biden commutes most federal death sentences but leaves Tree of Life shooter on death row
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Fast Forward JD Vance appears to defend Germany’s far-right AfD party
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Fast Forward Guatemalan authorities take 160 minors from extremist Lev Tahor sect after abuse allegations
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News ADL plans to ramp up legal pressure on K-12 schools over antisemitism
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