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Jews and Dogs
To mark the release of Cruella, Nathan Abrams reflects on the relationship between Jews and dogs. Even though I own two of them (or they own me), Jews and dogs are widely believed to be an oxymoron. Consider the Yiddish proverb, ‘A Jew with a dog? It’s either not a Jew or it’s not a […]
The Party Started Three Decades Ago
Nathan Abrams responds to an article in The Guardian about British Jewry’s alleged awakening from its timidity. Hadley Freeman’s assertation that ‘British Jews have always been self-effacing, but we’re starting to show our chutzpah’ overstates the point. Freeman is right that Corbyn’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party has obscured that fact but British […]
Congahead: Martin Cohen
Martin Jaffee reflects on Martin Cohen’s lifelong love affair with Latin music. On stage, hidden behind my full set of congas and bongos—a warm evening at Cain Park, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the Workmen’s Circle Klezmer Orchestra ( now Tischler Klezmer Orchestra) launches into Ich Hob Dich and I latch onto a sinuous Latin rhumba on […]
Discounted Jews
Nathan Abrams finds flaws in David Baddiel’s new book about antisemitism Jews Don’t Count. I finally got my copy of Jews Don’t Count, David Baddiel’s new book about antisemitism. Despite being a longtime fan and bearing more than a passing physical resemblance to him, I desperately didn’t want to like this book. Maybe it’s because the media only seems to pay attention to these issues when it’s a celebrity like Baddiel, Simon Schama or Anthony Julius. As he puts it himself in the book, ‘I am, […]
JewTh!nk’s Year in Review
Given that we only launched in July, this will have to be a half-year review. Here is our roundup of the top five films, television shows and books of (the second half of) 2020. Films Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Was this the best Jewish film of the year? Technically and aesthetically, probably not but in terms […]
Thinking in Yiddish
Michele Byers reflects on learning Yiddish during lockdown. Not knowing Yiddish is one of those things I’ve been lamenting most of my life. And, in a way, the lamentation is itself as much a part of my secular Jewish identity as knowing Yiddish might have been. I expect that it’s like this for a lot […]
Marmite? Hummus? Am I hearin’ you right?
If, to paraphrase the great Lenny Bruce, hummus is Jewish, then Marmite is definitely goyish. But what do you do when the two are combined into, wait for it, Marmite hummus? It sounds like an abomination, two ingredients that should never meet, like shatnez or mixing milk and meat. Really, we shouldn’t be surprised by this hybrid given that they’ve added Marmite to Mini […]