When architect Frank Gehry turned 75 some five years ago, he was hugely famous, much in demand and aware that even beyond his prolific output, his legacy needed some explanation. So he started thinking about how to go about preserving his thoughts.
Can you identify with an emotion never having experienced it personally? Can you learn from someone who shares his life story of survival from a life-threatening illness, never having been unwell yourself?
A hundred years ago, if you walked the streets of the Lower East Side, you would expect to hear Yiddish spoken all around you and to see storefronts covered in Hebrew letters spelling Yiddish words.
Through Frances Dinkelspiel’s literary blog, Ghost Word (francesdinkelspiel.blogspot.com), I kept up with the progress of her biography of Isaias Hellman, a Jewish immigrant who arrived in California in 1859 from Bavaria. As with many immigrants, Hellman had very little money; however, by the end of his life, he had transformed Los Angeles into a modern city and helped California become an economic power.
At the Passover seder next Wednesday evening, our children will recite the traditional question, “How is this night different from all other nights?” But the adults at the table are the ones who appreciate how this night really is different — not only from the rest of the year, but from the Passover seders of the past. As I started writing my third novel about Jewish spies during the Civil War, I began to wonder if American Jews had ever sat down at a seder where every part of the meal was served by slaves. As I discovered in my research, they did.
Frieda Korobkin was orphaned by the Holocaust, but because she spent the war years living protected in the English countryside, she didn’t really consider herself a survivor — and she never thought about writing her memoirs.
‘A Restless Spirit’ Soars, Q&A With Richard Gunther
Why do we read the Bible? For religion to be sure, but also for politics. After all, unlike the New Testament, which was written in the era of Roman rules and did not have to offer prescriptions for governance (the Romans handled all that), the Bible was a manual not only for individual piety, but also for setting up a society. What does it teach that the surrounding worlds did not know?
Curtis doesn't fully appreciate how much his on-screen allure owed to his being Jewish
Benjamin Disraeli was born Jewish, baptized as a boy but (mostly) considered himself to be Jewish. He famously proclaimed to Queen Victoria -- who began by hating him and ended adoring him -- that he was the "blank page" separating the Old and New Testaments.
Racy, tongue-in-cheek calendars are also an inspiration for Jamie Sneider, whose photos appear on every page of the "Jamie Sneider: Year of the Jewish Woman" calendar for 2009
Critics fear that Jewish genetic research also opens a Pandora's box. The discovery of a shared genetic marker among men who claim to be descended from Kohanim grew into wild, exaggerated claims in the media that geneticists had confirmed the story of Aaron
Isaias Hellman was arguably the single most powerful and influential Jew in the United States from the last quarter of the 19th century until his death in 1920
There are places you expect to find Jews and places you don't, and in the second category, the deck of a pirate ship ranks pretty close to the top
A.B. Yehoshua, long recognized as one of Israel's best novelists, has in recent years also emerged as one of its most prominent scolds.
No one ever said the life of a rock 'n' roll star was easy, and if you're the one responsible for their success, keeping an artist both successful and happy can be no less daunting
David Wild wants you to know that he is an unabashed Neil Diamond fan. So much so that he has written a book titled, "He Is ... I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond"
" . . . I'd met so many parents who are talented career people, but can be humbled to their knees by a 4-year-old. They'd say, 'Betsy, what do I say? What do I do? Help!' -- so I offer actual scripts that can be a starting point for parents . . . '
The Jewish Journal asked several authors appearing at Sunday's Celebration of Jewish Books to answer a question that, at least for writers, has existential overtones: "If you were stranded on a deserted island, what Jewish book would you want to have with you, and why?"
" . . . I'm talking to Shlomo Shva about my daughters, trying to dredge up a little sympathy. He knows about that. The harshest criticism of Israel and the Jews has always come from us. The biggest anti-Semites of all are educated Israelis, and my daughters are as fanatical as they are, but sweeter than most . . . "
"I am, for better or worse, burdened for all eternity by my religion" -- Benyamin Cohen
It's never too early to start educating kids about the environment, says Alison Hestrin Lerner -- so the Harvard-Westlake high school senior in September published a children's book, "The Green Street Kids: The Earth Warriors," targeting future "green" advocates aged four and up.
If you count yourself among the Heebsters and Sheebsters, you're proud to be a Jew and have no reservations when it comes to flaunting your J-bling. If this is all new to you, welcome to the world of hipster Jews.
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