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Forward the Foundation
Shivah Stars
Each week, we select the most interesting Jewish obituary. This week it’s that of Kenneth Libo, the legman to Irving Howe on World of Our Fathers, the definitive take on Eastern European Jewish migration to America. While Howe was writing the book, Libo populated it by mining archives, records, letters, forgotten 5-cent memoirs found canvassing used bookstores, and interviewing old vaudevillians. When the book was published, he was acknowledged on the cover: “With the Assistance of Kenneth Libo.”
Born in 1937 in Connecticut to a Jewish American mother and a Russian Jewish immigrant who operated a chicken farm, Libo taught literature and history at Hunter College, lectured widely and in 1980 would go on to be the first English-language editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, a publication where quite a few Tabletniks would find their sea legs.
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Jesse Tisch
Even Criminals Rest in Peace
What would Jewish law have to say about alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s burial?
When Berlin Meant Business
Berlin was once home to 50,000 Jewish-owned businesses. A historian is now obsessively reconstructing their demise.
In Praise of Dairy Restaurants
A visit to B&H Restaurant on Second Avenue brings back memories of milchig establishments of yore
Curse of the Survivor
Singer Vera Gran was haunted by allegations of Nazi collaboration. A new book asks if survival made her guilty.
