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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Life Prime Ribs: Girls in Pink; Women in Denim
Sholom Aleichem’s granddaughter, Bel Kaufman, discusses teaching Jewish humor and storytelling at age 100. (And be sure to read this recent Forward piece on Kaufman.) The Smithsonian writes about the emergence of gender-specific baby clothes in the 20th century. “Who are you calling grandma?” asks the New York Times. And “why is my retired mom…
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Life The Rise of the Unhappy Mommy Narrative
So where have all the happy young mothers gone? Did you never really exist? Or are you afraid to speak up these days against the chorus of people insisting that young children bring far more stress and trouble than happiness? Either way, I never hear from you anymore. Over the last few years, as my…
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Culture Coneheads Conquer New York
In 1898, Etta Cone was given $300 by her brother, Moses, to buy something nice for their Baltimore family home. Their father had just died, and Moses was hoping that a new piece of furniture or some nice table linens would cheer everyone up. Etta, 38 at the time, returned with five paintings by the…
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Life Prime Ribs: A Second ‘Rabba’; Birth and Infant Mortality Rates
Another “rabba” is slated to be ordained next month by the Academy of Jewish Religion, The Jewish Week reports. (The Sisterhood will have more on this shortly.) Chabad.org has a story about “The Heart That Sings,” a movie with an all-female cast. The film was screened in 11 cities during the Passover holiday; audiences were…
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Life On Fashion’s Abiding Love Affair With the Stiletto Strut
Yesterday’s New York Times featured an interview with Glamour magazine’s editor in chief Cindi Leive about what she wore last weekend. The title of the piece was “… And Heels, of Course.” “I always wear heels to work. Once I had a bum ankle and was ordered to wear flats; I felt as if I…
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Life Why Christian Women Are Sporting Jewish Jewelry
Well, it looks like Sarah Palin has made room in her wardrobe for yet another surprising sartorial choice: A Star of David necklace. On her trip last month to Israel, during which she met with Prime Minister Netanyahu and visited sites like the Kotel, Palin was seen sporting a sizeable silver Magen David. According to…
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Life Go Ahead — Tell Me I ‘Look Great’
While it would be impossible to deny that too much attention is put on women’s appearance, I still find it overly cynical to write off “you look great” as a violation, as my fellow Sisterhood contributor Elana Maryles Sztokman wrote in recent post. Elana explains that the common use of this phrase among girlfriends reveals…
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Life Prime Ribs: Gwyneth and Kabbalah; Knesset’s ‘Shiksa’ Debate
Apparently a love for Kabbalah runs in the family. Contact Music is reporting that in an upcoming episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” Gwyneth Paltrow discovers that her great-great-great grandfather was a master of Kabbalah. In other celebrity Kabbalah news, The Kabbalah Centre has apparently sent out an email to its members explaining…
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