Elissa Strauss has written for the Forward over a number of years. She is a regular contributor to CNN, whose work has been published in a number of publications including The New York Times, Glamour, ELLE, and Longreads.
Elissa Strauss
By Elissa Strauss
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Opinion Do Feminists Put Too Much Emphasis On Sex — at Religious Women’s Expense?
Sexual empowerment has long been a big part of the women’s movement, or at least a big part of how that movement has played out in popular culture. From Heley Gurley Brown’s Cosmopolitan, to HBO’s “Sex and the City,” to Miley Cyrus’s free love naked shtick, the message has been “Feel less shame — and…
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Opinion How Being the ‘Emotional’ Jewish Woman Actually Makes You Smarter — and More Successful
Remember Sophie Portnoy, Philip Roth’s portrait of a smothering Jewish mother? Or how about Fran Fine, the star character of “The Nanny,” who speaks almost exclusively in the whiny and needy upper nasal register? Or Cher Horowitz in “Clueless,” who is guided nearly exclusively by instinct rather than reason (well, until she is reformed by…
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Opinion ‘Red Oaks’ Proves That the Prurient Male Gaze Is Alive and Well
Amazon, the e-commerce behemoth that is coming ever closer to eliminating the time between desire and fulfilment, is not satisfied with being merely the world’s biggest bazaar. Over the years, it has become a content generator of its own, buying newspapers, publishing books and, apparently, producing Jewish-themed television shows. The latest in the oeuvre —…
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Opinion Let’s Keep Judaism Boring!
It’s hardly a new complaint about Jewish observance, though it is one gaining traction. How — clergy and directors of non-Orthodox synagogues across the country are asking themselves – can we make services less boring? It’s a justifiable aim. Attendance is down and there’s a lot to compete with, whether cell phones, delicious food, or…
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Opinion Why Jewish Women Are Extra Tired This Week
We just tallied up the results from our third installment of the Who Sets the Table? survey series and, once again, found that women are still mostly responsible for making holidays happen at home and getting folks to synagogue. Below is a compilation of your stories along with your answers to our survey questions. Whether…
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Opinion When You’re Way More Into Judaism Than Your Partner Is
Over the High Holidays, many of us reflect not just on what kind of people we are, but also on what kind of Jews we can and should be. I suspect this is especially true for the less observant among us, for whom Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur make up a large chunk of yearly…
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Opinion ‘Difficult People’ Proves It’s Still the Golden Age of Jews Mocking Jews
When “Curb Your Enthusiasm” began its indefinite hiatus four years ago, it seemed like the end. The end (perhaps temporarily) of one of my favorite shows, and then end of a golden age of Jewish comedy. Yes, there would continue to be Jews in comedy, but the phenomenon of the Jews using Jews as fodder…
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Opinion On Shabbat, Mom Works So You Don’t Have To
It’s No. 4 of the Ten commandments. “Remember the Sabbath Day, To Keep It Holy.” It sounds simple. We have to remember, to keep it holy. But as those who keep Sabbath know, sometimes the remembering and observing of it comes in direct conflict with keeping it holy. Whether preparing a household for 25 hours…
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