
Rob Eshman is a senior columnist for the Forward. For his food writing and recipes subscribe to his Foodaism newsletter.

Rob Eshman is a senior columnist for the Forward. For his food writing and recipes subscribe to his Foodaism newsletter.
I was the kind of kid who rushed out to buy round corn chips and orange Gatorade and square-pan pizzas. Any food with the bold word NEW! on the label sang to me. I wasn’t dumb. I knew that manufacturers just saw a tweak in the color or shape as a marketing ploy, a sucker’s…
This is an adaptation of our weekly Shabbat newsletter, sent by our editor-in-chief on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. And click here to download and print a PDF of Your Weekend Reads. Jodi Rudoren, our editor-in-chief, is off today for her twins’ bnai mitzvah, so…
Nobody knew what to call me either. Just over 30 years ago, I walked into a synagogue in Venice, California, met the rabbi, Naomi Levy, and felt my heart pound. A year-and-a-half later, we were married. She was my Kamala. Back then, women rabbis weren’t as scarce as Black-Indian female Vice Presidents-elect, but they weren’t…
Joe Biden’s victory is cause for long-delayed celebration among the majority of American Jews. According to a J Street voter survey, Biden received 77% of the Jewish vote. The final number may change up or down, but, hey, getting north of 70% of Jews to agree on anything is in and of itself a cause…
The first time the word “cages” appears in “Hatemongers,” Jean Guerrero’s biography of senior presidential advisor Stephen Miller, it’s in reference to Jews. Miller’s great-grandfather Nison Miller, Guerrero writes, arrived by steamship in New York City in 1904, a time when hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews were fleeing poverty and pogroms. At Ellis…
Sen. Kamala Harris missed an easy layup when Vice President Mike Pence offered what he thought was his best defense of his boss’s record on white supremacy during Wednesday night’s debate. Pence said President Donald Trump couldn’t support antisemites because “he has Jewish grandchildren.” Harris let it go, but what she could have said was…
Sukkot came early to Venice, Calif., this year. The fall Jewish holiday rolled in around June. That’s when I first noticed full-fledged huts popping up in my neighborhood. They were dead ringers for the temporary shelters Jews put up to mark Sukkot, with bamboo or fabric walls, and roofs that included palm fronds, bamboo stalks…
Among the many beloved traditions the pandemic has derailed is one that is only a year old: making and serving a Yom Kippur break-the-fast soup to 300 very hungry people. The soup is Morrocan harira, the traditional dish Sephardic Jews, especially those from North Africa, eat at the end of the Yom Kippur fast. Harira…
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