By Ron Dicker
The Kunstler daughters have made a new documentary about their father, William Kunstler, a Jewish lawyer who represented Martin Luther King Jr. and the Chicago Seven earning a reputation for carrying freedom in his briefcase. He never spoke of antisemitism, but his daughters believe it steered his outlook.
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By Nathan Burstein
Colombian singer Shakira, who has topped charts with her Spanish and English lyrics, samples Klezmer music on her new album, “She Wolf,” which debuted at 15 on a recent Billboard album chart.Read More
By Christopher Atamian
Anna Sokolow was born into a poor émigré Russian-Jewish family before she helped found modern dance. A worldwide series of retrospectives began in September to honor what would have been the artist’s 100th birthday.
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By Glenn C. Altschuler
Steve Luxenberg’s mother kept her institutionalized sister a secret until she died. In a new book, Luxenberg reveals a poignant tale of Depression-era Jewish immigrants and mental institutions in the 1930s and ’40s.
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By Dan Friedman
Music, namely hearing Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight,” caused Nina Rothschild to abandon her family to embrace the vulnerable, dangerous world of New York bebop in the late 1940s. A documentary made by her great-niece provides testimony to Rothschild’s influence.
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By Jake Marmer
Many of us know Chana Bloch as the translator of Yehuda Amichai, Israel’s most illustrious poet. Bloch’s own poetry, however, in her recent collection, delves into her Ashkenazic Jewish heritage and its folkloric store of imagery and engages Israel’s arch foil: the Diaspora.
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By Rahel Musleah
Composer Meira Warshauer is not the first move the shofar from synagogue to concert hall, but her new concerto for shofar-trombone soloist and orchestra, called “Tekeeyah (a call),” highlights the instrument’s range beyond its traditional ritual role.
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By Akin Ajayi
Rachel Shabi’s “You Look Like the Enemy: The Hidden Story of Israel’s Jews from Arab Lands” provides an impassioned argument against the neglect of the country’s Middle Eastern identity. In this Q&A, Shabi explains why she thinks, “the Israeli take on history is not terribly accommodating to different narratives.
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By Allison Gaudet Yarrow
Born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in Brazil, Deborah Colker is a director and choreographer with a more than 30-year career. While in New York, Colker recently stopped by the Forward’s studio to discuss her piece “4x4,” depicted in this audio slideshow.Read More
By Benjamin Ivry
After a year spent dark while renovating what is now the David H. Koch Theater, the New York City Opera has chosen to revive one of the most powerful American Jewish operas for its first full production of the season. On November 7, Hugo Weisgall’s “Esther,” which premiered in 1993 to nearly universal acclaim, will once again address questions of Jewish identity and assimilation.
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