Wendy Belzberg
By Wendy Belzberg
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News Since When Do Bouncers Guard Synagogues’ Silences?
I recently attended a bar mitzvah. As we were entering the sanctuary we were warned that there was a no-talking policy and that anyone who disrupted the service would be asked to leave. I watched as several people were indeed removed from the service. Since when are there bouncers at a synagogue? — Synagogue cum…
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News A Bride’s Tough Call Over a Turn of Phrase
My fiance and I both are the products of divorce. Our mothers are each contributing to our wedding, but we are paying 75% of the cost on our own. We decided that the invitation should read “together with our families” we invite you to join us at our wedding. My future mother-in-law was outraged by…
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News Misguided Advice on Israeli Aid
Recently it came to my horrified attention that my Forward e-mail has been disappearing into the void of virtual reality — by the ream. Hundreds of letters were delivered into my mailbox but never came out the other side; many e-mails never made it into the mailbox in the first place. Last week the dedicated…
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News Alienated by Atheists’ Anger About Bar Mitzvah
Should I go behind my 72-year-old mother’s back and tip her doormen? She has lived in the same building for the past 20 years. She gives each doorman $10 for the holidays. Period. Should I slip the doormen something extra when I visit her, and, if so, how much would be appropriate? — At the…
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News Presents (or Just Presence) at Bris?
Am I supposed to take something to a bris? I was invited to the home of a co-worker who just had her first son. I gave her a gift at her baby shower, and our department sent a beautiful flower arrangement to the hospital. Is there a protocol for giving a gift at a bris…
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News Cutting Out the Charitable Middleman
I believe it’s a mitzvah to give money to Jewish causes. I get blind solicitations in the mail every day, and I always send checks to charities based in Israel. I also respond to many solicitations from American organizations for Israeli causes with names like “Friends of…” or “American Friends of.…” I know the American…
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News Is It Time To Let (Bigoted) Bygones Be Bygones?
When my (non-Jewish) husband and I were married, his mother objected with every variety of antisemitic slurs, up to and including the pronouncement that “doors would be closed to us.” Fifteen years have gone by, and I have not forgiven her. My husband insists that it is time to forgive — if not forget —…
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News Video Greetings at Gravesite? What Terrible Taste!
I recently received a brochure from a Jewish funeral home offering a service I find appalling: a personalized video of the deceased that can be viewed at the funeral and on demand whenever you visit the gravesite. Surely this cannot be in keeping with Jewish law? — Appalled by funeral services Consulting Jewish texts about…
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Forverts in English A Yiddish word I never expected to see on a license plate
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Opinion Anti-Zionism forced us to withdraw from Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
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News ‘No one’s allowed to talk to me’: At UW-Madison, trying — and failing — to talk about Israel
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Opinion The Gaza War is neither a genocide nor a mission — it’s Revisionist Zionism in action
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish זאַמלבוך באַשרײַבט די ייִדישע קולטור אין פֿאַר־מלחמהדיקן פּוילן, פֿונעם 'דאָיִקייט'־קוקווינקלNew book describes Jewish culture in prewar Poland, from a ‘Doikayt’ perspective
אינטערעסאַנט איז וואָס די קראָקעװער ייִדן האָבן זיך געפֿילט מער פּױליש, אײדער ייִדן אין אַנדערע שטעט, װי װילנע
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Art Paintings, Judaica and history collide at Tobi Kahn’s Eldridge Street exhibition
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Yiddish ווי אַזוי האָט אויסגעזען דאָס לעבן אין דעטראָיטס אַמאָליקן ייִדישן קוואַרטאַל?What was life like in Detroit’s old Jewish quarter?
אַ נײַע אויסשטעלונג פֿון „הייסטינגס סטריט“ נעמט אַרײַן טשיקאַווע חפֿצים, ווי באַנקעס פֿונעם עפֿנטלעכן שוויצבאָד
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Fast Forward Yael Dayan, Israeli writer, politician, peace activist and general’s daughter, dies at 85