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June 19, 2013

Peter Grier and Harry Bruinius: In the end, NSA might not need to snoop so secretly after all

Howard LaFranchi: Taliban peace talks hold glimmer of hope, but also unanswerable questions

Warren Richey: Supreme Court: For right to remain silent, a suspect must speak
Meredith Cohn: Leeches are making a comeback as medical helpers

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to pick the healthiest breakfast cereal

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: Spicy Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

June 17, 2013

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein: Black to the Future: American Apparel Gets Biblical

Patrik Jonsson: Minnesota Nazi: How did Nazi hunters miss Michael Karkoc?

Kate Irby, Ali Watkins, Trevor Graff and Kevin Thibodeaux: All the ways you're being watched
Don Lee: G-8 meeting will test NSA leaks' effect on U.S. influence

Patrik Jonsson: Fort Hood shooting: Judge nixes Nidal Hasan defense strategy. What now?

Stacey Burling: Why the stigma for migraine sufferers?

The Kosher Gourmet by Lisa Abraham: Does it work? 5 new kitchen gadgets put to the test

June 14, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget: Religious economics and being a ruler

John P. Martin: Hitler insider's missing diary found

Matt Pearce: NSA surveillance disclosure could affect court cases
Peter Tinti: US bounties changes strategy on (Wild, Wild) West African jihadis

Daniel Pendrick, M.D.: Memory loss? Old age may be the least of it

Lauren F. Friedman: But it's all natural! Should we have an instinctive preference for herbal remedies?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Streisand and Alicia Keys in Israel; "Girls" Stuff; Mel Brooks, Another TV special; Superman (who is Jewish) returns --- Israeli plays his mom

The Kosher Gourmet by Sharon K. Ghag : Bored with salad? Bling it up a bit (4 effortless recipes that will result in a 'WOW!')

June 12, 2013

Stephanie Hanes: Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect

Fred Weir: In tweak to US, Russia would 'consider' asylum for Snowden

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: What's so special about Omega-3 supplements?
Morgan Housel: What newspapers were saying when you should have been buying

Pete Spotts: How cockroaches evolved so as to bypass 'roach motels'

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: Deep-dish cookie: Warm, gooey and a little over the top

June 10, 2013

Joseph A. Slobodzian: Faith healing and third degree murder: Thorny legal case
Lindsay Wise: Few options for online users to avoid spying, experts say

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: There are plenty of nutritional food bargains out there
Harvard Health Letters: Can bariatric surgery control diabetes?

Zach Murdock: Superglue helps doctors save infant's life

The Kosher Gourmet by Celebrated chef Mario Batali : As good as grilling gets: Rib eye with dry mushroom spice rub

June 7, 2013

Rabbi David Aaron: Beating jealousy

Caroline B. Glick: Wounded . . . and dangerous

Clifford D. May: Al Qaeda vs. Hezbollah
Harvard Health Letters: Fighting back against allergy season

Kimberly Lankford: Grandparents who use FSA to cover grandkid's braces and other must-know info

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom:J ewish Tony Nominees/Tony Awards; Jewish Teen Actor In Sci-Fi Flick; Jewish singer in "Voice" finals

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: A tart filling so good it might not make it to the crust

June 5, 2013

John Rosemond: Mom, Dad: Talk More and listen less

Kristen Chick: Egypt court sentences 43 pro-democracy workers to prison

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Mushrooms Have Medicinal As Well As Culinary Value
Morgan Housel: Why you never learn from your investment mistakes

Don Lee: In China, kindergarten rivalry takes deadly turn

The Kosher Gourmet by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan: 30-Minute Coq au Vin isn't a dream

June 3, 2013

Molly Hennessy-Fiske: Military judge to consider letting Fort Hood shooting defendant represent himself

Richard A. Serrano: Pvt. Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks trial also a test for government

Mark Trumbull: Have degree, driving cab: Nearly half of college grads are overqualified
Kim Lankford: What to do when long-term care insurance premiums rise

Deborah Netburn: Study: Adults' mouth bacteria may help babies

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Contestant on 'The Voice'; Will Smith's 'Jewish movie family'; Bravo Gives Long Island Jews the Jersey Shore Treatment; Magicians and More

The Kosher Gourmet by Bill Ward: How to be as refined as the wines at a wine tasting

May 29, 2013

Andrew Connelly and Helene Bienvenu: The Little Synagogue that Refused to Die

Dennis Prager: The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie

David Clark Scott: Open war on teachers?
Morgan Housel: If you know only five things about investing, make it these

Sara Reardon: AGenome detectives change the donation game

Deborah Netburn: A one-way ticket to Mars? 78,000-plus and counting apply by video

The Kosher Gourmet by Bev Bennett: CHEDDAR AND CHERRY MUFFINS --- your mouth is already watering

May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting


Jewish World Review Nov. 5, 2008 / 7 Mar-Cheshvan 5769

Remembering a ‘curious’ Studs Terkel

By Clarence Page


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It is a special brand of tragic timing that took Studs Terkel and Barack Obama's grandmother away as the whole world tuned in to America's big election.


Madelyn Dunham, whom Obama called a "quiet hero" in his life, died Monday in Hawaii at age 86. One of her final acts, according to news reports, was to vote for her grandson by absentee ballot as he sought to become America's first black president.


Or, more appropriately, America's first openly biracial president. As much as we media folks use the shorthand of America's one-drop rule to define anyone with even one drop of black blood to be black, Obama has not tried to run away from the white mother and grandparents who raised him.


By all accounts Obama's grandparents sound like the sort of devoted, hard-working and sacrificing Americans that Terkel, who died Friday at age 96, wrote prize-winning books about.


You could take other Chicago writers of his stature, such as James T. Farrell, Mike Royko or Nelson Algren, and say they gave the city a voice. Terkel, a pioneer in TV talk and later a syndicated national radio star at Chicago's WFMT, preferred to let people speak for themselves. He lent his ear to the poetry he heard in the voices of ordinary people and injected lyrical vigor into the seemingly dry science of oral history.


Terkel tackled the vexing issue of race in his 1992 book, "Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession," in the same way he tackled other gigantic topics — such as World War II, the Great Depression, urban life and how Americans feel about work. He interviewed a cross-section of people who live day-to-day with the consequences of decisions that the big shots make downtown.


One memory grabbed me at the time and still stands out. He describes a woman who was driving down the street in a black neighborhood with which she was not familiar. "The people at the corners were all gesticulating at her," Terkel wrote." She was very frightened, turned up the windows, and drove determinedly.


She discovered after several blocks, she was going the wrong way on a one-way street and they were trying to help her. Her assumption was they were blacks and out to get her."


The woman was quite unlike Studs. For one, he didn't drive. He depended, he would say, "on the kindness of strangers." And on his neighbors, of whom I was proud to be one in the 1970s and '80s on Chicago's north side. We were proud to offer a lift to the elegantly disheveled Studs in his trademark red-checkered shirt and bright red wool socks as he shambled toward the Sheridan Road bus stop, talking to himself. The uninitiated easily mistook him for a neatly dressed mental case. The knowledgeable marveled at what new stroke of genius might emerge from that agile mind next.


"Curiosity did not kill this cat," Studs would say, when describing what he wanted to be his epitaph. Curiosity led him to believe that every living soul has a worthwhile story to tell to an interviewer who was willing to offer them a friendly ear. He had a knack for opening people up, everyone would say. But to someone who was interviewed by Studs a couple of times, his secret was obvious. Unlike most of the herd that populates talk shows today, he listened like a man who genuinely cared about what you had to say.


The story of the white woman in the black neighborhood came to mind when Obama recounted in his own major speech on race how hurt he felt when his grandma expressed fear years ago about young black males on a bus. Obama's critics mocked his "throwing grandma under the bus" to defend his association with the incendiary Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But it was not Studs' style to dismiss anyone's feelings. He was too curious.


As a result he helped me — through his books on race, the Great Depression and his Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Good War" — to see how people unlike myself, such as that frightened white woman, see the world. And to discover how much we have in common behind our fears, anger, resentments and suspicions.


Studs, who said he never saw a petition he wouldn't sign, believed in community. "The individual discovers his strength as an individual because he has, along the way, discovered others share his feelings" Studs wrote in a "This I Believe" essay for National Public Radio. "He is not alone, and thus a community is formed." Those thoughts rolled through my mind as I waited in a long line to vote for a former community organizer. Thanks, Studs, I thought. Your community will miss you.

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