Happy birthday Woody Guthrie, our greatest Hanukkah songwriter
The composer of 'Hanuka Gelt' and 'This Land Is Your Land' would have turned 110 today
Our Promised Lands
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Culture A New Jersey tale of two Alfred Doblins — and one umlaut
Editor’s Note: Alfred Döblin, the Weimar-era author of ‘Berlin Alexanderplatz,’ was born on this day in 1878. To honor this occasion, we revisit this award-winning story about the writer’s connection to another Alfred Doblin. I was dozing in front of the TV when I lifted one eyelid to see Rachel Maddow interviewing a man with…
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Culture On Elvis Presley’s 85th birthday, a story of his brush with Jewishness
Editor’s Note: This story ran in 2014 as part of the Forward’s “Our Promised Lands” series. We’re re-revisiting it today in honor of what would have been Elvis Presley’s 85th birthdayt. In the summer of 1954, Elvis Presley released his first single. He had one problem: He couldn’t play it. The aspiring 19-year-old singer was…
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Culture What It Means To Grow Up Jewish in Chicago
Growing up Jewish in Chicago means you’re perversely proud of the fact that you didn’t grow up in New York. Growing up Jewish in Chicago means you actually grew up in Chicago — not in Skokie, Evanston, Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove or any of the other suburbs where Jews started to flee when real estate…
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Culture How an Okie Named Woody Guthrie Became Our Best Hanukkah Tunesmith
For 20 years, I was a pop music critic. Every year as the calendar wound down, here came one of music journalism’s over-roasted chestnuts: the annual roundup of new Christmas albums. I never groaned. I’m one of those Christmas music people. As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is down my gullet, I’m trotting out the…
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Culture Which Side Were We On? Kentucky Slavery, Mine Wars and Segregation
1. Bat Shit on the Cave Floor In a forest in Kentucky there’s a hole in the ground that was once full of bat shit. The bats are mostly gone now. A bat plague hit here last year, and when you follow the sloping sidewalk down into the hole today, you step into a silent…
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Culture I Went To New Hampshire To Buy J.D. Salinger’s House
I have traveled to Cornish, New Hampshire, with the intention of buying J.D. Salinger’s house. Last year, when the house went on the market, it was listed for $679,000, but now Jane Darrach, the real estate agent for the property, has told me the price has dropped to “585-ish.” It seems like a lot of…
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Culture Of Sarah Silverman, Susanna Heschel and 8 Other Things About Jewish New Hampshire
10,120 Jews live in New Hampshire. In the late 19th century, Abraham and Rachel Isaac founded what was reported New Hampshire’s first Jewish business, which was called “The Cheap Shop.” New Hampshire’s oldest synagogue is Temple Adath Yeshurun of Manchester, founded in 1891. Poet Maxine Kumin lived on a farm in the town of Warner….
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