Where Jewish Women Converse

Familial Anguish Art

Artist Mirta Kupferminc bases her work — now on display at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion — on her parents’ heritage. “I am, in a good way, using her suffering,” Kupferminc said of her mother, a Holocaust survRead More

Leadership

Questions Linger About Egyptian Breast Cancer Conference

By Beth Schwartzapfel

When two Israeli advocates were disinvited to a breast cancer conference in Egypt, the sponsor, the Susan G. Komen Foundation — whose namesake is a Jewish woman — said it was a misunderstanding. The Israelis say Komen could have done more, sooner.Read More

Family Life

My Birth-dad on My Birthday

By Shira Dicker

Shira Dicker was adopted as an infant, and met her birth father for the first time at age 48. On the eve of her 49th birthday, Dicker wonders whether or not her birth father would acknowledge her birthday — and the implications of such an acknowledgment.Read More

Faith & Ritual

A Wall For Us All

By Jane Eisner

An Israeli woman was arrested by the Western Wall for wearing a prayer shawl, an act of devotion common in many American synagogues. The self-named rabbinic authorities claim such behavior is offensive. But for many women, the act of prayer is incomplete without a tallit.Read More

Arts & Culture

Nica Rothschild and the Birth of Bebop

By Dan Friedman

Music, namely hearing Thelonious Monk’s “Round Midnight,” caused Nica 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.Read More

The Bintel Brief

Together At The Table

By Joan Nathan

When a concerned bubbe writes in to ask how to get her busy family to eat dinner together, our guest Bintel Brief advice columnist, food writer and cookbook author Joan Nathan, weighs in and suggests that the bubbe teach by her own example.Read More

Leadership

Shalom Y’all

By Allison Gaudet Yarrow

After her historic ordination and the swarm of press coverage it triggered, mainstream Judaism’s first black woman rabbi, Alysa Stanton, settles into her new role, leading a small congregation in Greenville, N.C.Read More

Mind & Body

Giving While Sick

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen

Rochelle Shoretz is once again fighting breast cancer — the disease that inspired her to found Sharsheret, an organization that provides support to young Jewish women living with cancer. Even as she undergoes treatment, Shoretz is working to grow the non-profit that she started.Read More

The Weekly Parsha

Summarizing a Decade — or a Millennia

By Rabbi Ilana Grinblat

“As it turns out, summarizing a decade or five millennia is easier than it seems,” writes Rabbi Ilana Grinblat, who realized recently that her life as mother could be summed up in a short passage from this week’s Torah portion.Read More

Orthodox Rabbi to Michael Oren: Arrest of Woman in Tallit 'Offensive and Dangerous'

By Gabrielle Birkner

In Defense of the Ponytail-Puller

By Allison Gaudet Yarrow

Forward Editor: As a Mom, I'm More Conservative Than Sarah Palin

By Jane Eisner

Is ‘Imposter Syndrome’ Really a Women’s Issue?

By Leah Berkenwald

Woman of the Wall Arrest: A First-Hand Account

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen

Reader's Voice
"I find the Kotel unwelcoming for women now, and, as I attend an egalitarian service at my egalitarian synagogue, I find it ridiculous that this is the way the Kotel is set up!"
– Ari
From the Forverts Archives

Patriotic Songs

Yeminite singer Hanna Ahroni sits on a military jeep with five Israeli soldiers. She joined the army in the early 1950s and performed with their musical entertainment group.

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Should young women more readily embrace the label 'feminist'?

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