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 A Jewish Reckoning With Infertility
This past week was 25th National Infertility Awareness Week, an effort by RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association to raise awareness of the condition experienced by one in eight U.S. couples of childbearing age. Since they began this campaign much has changed in the way we discuss fertility, and more men and women now feel free…
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Life The Whole World Is Your Bubbe
Library of Congress The whole world is officially turning into your bubbe. From Iran to Russia to Japan and Romania, governments around the world are making your womb their business. Everyone is terrified because of the ongoing decline in the birth rate, which has dropped below replacement level and, if it continues as such, will…
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Life Hobby Lobby’s Crusade To Take Over Public Education
Getty Images Turns out Hobby Lobby’s challenge of the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, which is now before the Supreme Court, is only one part of its crusade to blur the lines between church and state. Steven Green, president of the craft store chain, has created a bible curriculum and now a public school district…
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Life Alicia Silverstone’s Clueless Parenting Advice
Getty Images Alicia Silverstone has a new book out and I wonder why it is selling. For starters, it has a impossible to remember title, the sort that only Fiona Apple can get away with: “The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful…
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Opinion I Believe in God — Kind Of
This is how I feel about God. I have no reason to believe in God. I can’t defend the existence of a supernatural being on any ground, and most certainly not on any rational or scientific ones. I have no convincing anecdotal evidence to rely on either, no visions or other visceral experiences upon which…
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Life Why HBO’s ‘Doll and Em’ Deserves To Be Renewed
A recognizable portrayal of mid-30s to early 40-something women on TV is a rare thing. When we do see women of this age they tend to have incredibly intense jobs like “Scandal’s” Olivia Pope or “Homeland’s” Carrie Mathison or they are, well, a character on “Sex and the City.” This is what makes the new…
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Life I Don’t Want Lots of Confidence
Getty Images I’m not extremely confident. I second-guess myself. I ruminate. I wonder what other people might think, and even how they might feel. I don’t see this as a bad thing. Instead, I think of my lack of alpha-level confidence as a real strength. When I was in my early 20s, I applied for…
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Life The Redemption of Valley Girl Speak
IMDB // The Valley girl characters Cher Horowitz and Dionne Davenport in “Clueless” Like, yes. Like totally. Like finally. The Valley girls of the world have been redeemed. In what I hope is the last and final word on girl speak, the New York Times recently ran an oped by prominent linguist and literature professor…
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Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
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Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
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Film & TV How Marlene Dietrich saved me — or maybe my twin sister — and helped inspire me to become a lifelong activist
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Fast Forward Trump administration can deport Mahmoud Khalil for undermining U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism, judge rules
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