Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the robust lives of American Jews. Here there’s a little of everything about the multifaceted world of Jewish life. There are light-hearted Jewish celebrity stories and shocking Jewish celebrity news. Food is also plentiful,…
Life
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‘Fearless Girl’ Statue Not The Feminist Icon We Need
In case you missed it: There’s a “Fearless Girl” statue on Wall Street, a statue of a small girl bravely facing down the bull (statue) that’s normally there. The statue — coinciding with International Women’s Day last week — may seem very feminist and empowering. Or does it? In a great piece on Hyperallergic, Jillian…
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After A Personal Struggle With Infertility, Rabbi Helps Other Jews In Same Situation
Infertility and its challenges can be hard and soul crushing. It can be a cycle of despair and hope, not to mention financially crushing. That’s why I formed Hasidah (Hebrew for stork) to provide support and financial assistance to Jewish couples in need. I founded Hasidah after my own struggles. My husband and I went…
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Today In Bad Ideas: Nazi Pilot Honored For Breaking Glass Ceiling
In The Canadian Jewish News, Janice Arnold reports that the Vancouver-based Institute for Women of Aviation Worldwide (IWAW), a non-profit sponsored partly by Air Canada, is honoring Hanna Reitsch for her barrier-breaking role as first woman helicopter pilot. “The problem,” writes Arnold, “is that Hanna Reitsch was a Nazi, and apparently an unrepentant one.” This…
The Latest
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Essay Examines Dual Citizenship ‘In This New Nationalist Era’
Writer Pamela Druckerman, who is Jewish, has a brilliant, timely essay in the New York Times about her experiences as an American acquiring French citizenship, in the era of Brexit and Trump. A taste: [D]uring my [citizenship] interview, I froze when asked why I wanted to become French. I remembered hearing that when a rabbi…
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Scarlett Johansson Channels Ivanka Trump In SNL Spoof Ad
On Saturday Night Live, Scarlett Johansson — one of the Jewish speakers at the Women’s March — starred as Ivanka Trump in a spoof ad for a perfume called “Complicit.” The most interesting aspect of the video isn’t, I don’t think, the spoof “Ivanka,” but the portrait of how other women react to her, or…
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From The Department Of Sound Advice: No Blackface For Purim
At Jewcy, Gabriela Geselowitz offers advice to Jews thinking of wearing blackface for Purim. Don’t. I second that advice wholeheartedly. Still unsure why blackface — on Purim or in general — is a bad idea? Geselowitz spells out the essential: “If a minority community overwhelmingly communicates that an aspect of emulating them for a costume…
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A Nun At Purim
Despite its regular appearance on the Jewish calendar, Purim tends to take me by surprise each year, leaving me scrambling to bake my hamentashen and assemble a costume for our synagogue’s all-ages party. Last year, though, I was prepared. “I’m going as a nun,” I announced to my husband. A friend had a costume from…
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Zionist Feminist: Not An Oxymoron
In a New York Times op-ed, “Does Feminism Have Room for Zionists?,” Emily Shire writes that she is “troubled by the portion of the International Women’s Strike platform that calls for a ‘decolonization of Palestine’ as part of ‘the beating heart of this new feminist movement.’” Shire concludes her piece by noting that she does…
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How Are Jewish Organizations Celebrating #InternationalWomensDay?
This International Women’s Day marks the hundredth anniversary of one of the day’s most significant early iterations, the 1917 Russian women’s strike for “Bread and Peace,” which helped initiate the Russian Revolution. Four days after the strike, Czar Nicholas II abdicated, and the provisional government established in his place granted Russian women the right to…
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Women’s Megillah Readings Go Global
Women’s megillah (Scroll of Esther) readings haven’t gotten quite as big as Achashverosh’s kingdom, but they are getting there. The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) has published its annual directory and interactive map of women’s megillah readings happening around the world on Purim this year. The initiative is part of Project Esther, an annual JOFA…
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Terror Victim’s Niece Condemns Women’s Strike For Including Convicted Killer In Leadership
(JTA) — The niece of an Israeli killed in a terrorist attack nearly 50 years ago criticized the planned March 8 International Women’s Strike for allowing into a leadership role one of the convicted terrorists that killed her uncle. “What justification is there for Rasmea Odeh, a woman who killed two people (with the intention…
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