Forward.com

Russian School Helps Kids Maintain Parents’ HeritageThe mass exodus of Jews from the former Soviet Union in the past decade has created a unique quandary for Jewish schools: How can educators help immigrants’ children maintain links to a country they don’t know, and imbue them with knowledge of a religion and culture that is often unfamiliar to their parents?The Shalom School in…Read more

Rhodes Scholar Heads to Iraq as Military OfficerBy virtue of the Rhodes Scholarship he was awarded in November, Daniel Helmer is scheduled to study at Oxford University this fall. Before he heads to England, however, he is going to Iraq.Helmer, a 22-year-old from Colts Neck, N.J., was an academic overachiever as an undergraduate. He was also a member of the gymnastics team, president of the…Read more

Dora Wasserman, Yiddish Theater’s Grand Dame, DiesMore than 600 friends, family and public figures gathered in Montreal to bid farewell to Dora Wasserman, the grand dame of Yiddish theater who fled war-ravaged Eastern Europe to form the only resident Yiddish theater in North America. Wasserman died December 15 of natural causes in Montreal. She was 84.…Read more

LOST IN TRANSITIONJudith Brodsky has never been shy about tackling controversial issues. The printmaker has used her art to decry the environmentally corrosive effects of industrialization in New Jersey and to examine the struggle for gender equality in the curatorial profession.In “Memoir of an Assimilated Family,” on display at the Aljira arts center, Brodsky…Read more

A LATIN KLEZMER LOVERCuban-born percussionist Roberto Rodriguez takes center stage at the JCC in Manhattan, teaming up with renowned clarinetist David Krakauer and his Roberto Rodriguez Septet to perform music from his album “El Danzon De Moises,” released on John Zorn’s Tzadik record label.The record, Rodriguez’s first as the primary composer, brings together…Read more