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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What’s the Yiddish for ‘Pussy Hat’?
Say you’re going to a Women’s March and have decided to knit, or wear, a protest Pussy Hat for the occasion. You may find yourself in need of brief moments of levity, and a fine diversion is contemplating possible Yiddish translations for “Pussy Hat”: A hat in the style of the Pussy Hat is called…
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Educate and Encourage Newbie Activists. Don’t Shame Them for Tardiness.
There’s a message I’ve seen floating around, and it goes like this: If you weren’t already aware of all the myriad injustices in American life, if you weren’t already outraged, and you’ve only thought to care now, what with Trump’s election, you should be ashamed. In one very abstract sense, sure — if it took…
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I.V.F. as Birthright: Jewish Fertility Foundation Offers Grants
An eJewish Philanthropy post reports that the Jewish Fertility Foundation is offering grants (due February 15th) to help women pay for fertility treatments. To be considered, an applicant needs to be “Jewish-defined as at least 1 Jewish parent (Jewish = as from birth or conversion from any denomination); intention of raising child Jewish.” As the…
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Marching on Washington Affirms My Jewish Values — Especially on Shabbat
Prophecy has never been non-partisan. For thousands of years, Judaism (and especially the writings of the prophets) has contained ethical and moral imperatives that require an engagement with the world, and offer not just the vision of a messianic age – but a demand that we, as Jews, help create it. Years after Rabbi Abraham…
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How Yiddish Family Names Discreetly Honor Jewish Mothers (Hint: ‘Rivkin’ Comes From ‘Rivka’)
A version of this article originally appeared in the Forverts. What attitude towards women do we find in Yiddish, and is it fair? One time, several years ago, a number of us were sitting around a table at Yugntruf’s Yidish-vokh retreat, singing songs. Someone brought up the subject of political correctness, and a discussion ensued…
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Why Jewish Feminism Should Embrace, Not Fear, Intersectionality
In the infinite race to inform Americans of “why Trump won,” commentators have started to home in on a bit of academic theory that was, until recently, obscure: “intersectionality.” It is “political poison,” Damon Linker said. It will cause the Women’s March on Washington to “eat itself from within,” offers Heather Wilhelm in The National…
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Donald Trump’s Subtle Sexism Towards Ivanka Makes Me Nostalgic For Caring About Subtle Bigotry
Fears or hopes or whatever they were of Ivanka Trump serving as a behind-the-scenes first female president can probably be set aside. Donald Trump went to Jared rather than Ivanka for assistance: “‘She is busy buying a house,’ he said [in an interview quoted in the Forward]. ‘She has children so Jared will be engaged…
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Boston-Area Rabbi Embraces Interfaith Dialogue and YouTube Activism
If a picture is worth a thousand words, the photograph of Muslims and Jews gathered around an unfurled Torah in the sanctuary of Temple Shalom Emeth, Rabbi Susan Abramson’s suburban Boston congregation, says volumes about her ongoing and notable interfaith outreach. The picture above was taken during an “Evening of Fellowship” with the local Muslim…
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Patriarchy, Perfectionism, and Anti-Semitism Influence Jewish Girls’ Self-Image
Riki Wilchins has written a fascinating article about her recent work addressing sexism and self-image as they impact Jewish girls. This focus, she explains, took some prompting, even though she herself is Jewish and familiar with these concerns. As she explains in the piece, she hadn’t spontaneously thought of Jewish girls as a group in…
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A Jewish Woman Finds Spiritual Meaning in Turning 40
I have something I have to admit, and like ripping off a Band-Aid, it’s probably best if I just come out with it: I – gulp! – turned 40 this year. Forty is the age when you are wise and mature and can learn Kabbalah, according to some sages. Or the age when you know…
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Somewhere on the Upper East Side, a Jewish Woman Has a Neo-Nazi Husband
News broke over the weekend that a prominent neo-Nazi troll going by the name Mike Enoch was not a disgruntled grassroots white supremacist coming out of a part of the country with few Jews and a vivid imagination about what The Jew might be like, but rather a dude living in the Upper East Side…
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Yiddish אַ זעלטענע זאַך אין פּאַריז — אַ קאָנפֿערענץ בלויז וועגן די ליטוואַקעסA rare event in Paris — a conference just about the Litvaks
צוליב דעם וואָס ס׳רובֿ פּאַריזער אַשכּנזים שטאַמען פֿון פּוילן, קומט די ליטוויש־ייִדישע קולטור נישט אָפֿט צו רייד
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