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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The Real Reason Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Rail Against Women’s Education
Recently, a number of media outlets have the statements of the haredi rabbinic leadership in Israel regarding academic study for women. Last Tuesday, a group of leading haredi rabbis met and declared that women should not study in any secular higher education institutions or obtain secular academic degrees. Coming in the midst of discussions of…
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Why Not All Israeli Feminists Are Interested in Hanukkah Candles
A Hanukkah near-miracle reminds us of feminist divisions The quarter-century-old feminist prayer group Women of the Wall was on the receiving end of its very own Hanukkah near-miracle this week, when Israel’s attorney general’s office ordered the Kotel rabbi to include women in the state’s official Hanukkah ceremony. Women of the Wall launched a campaign…
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Following Shooting, Will We Take Clinic Violence Seriously?
The recent shooting at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, which resulted in the murder of three innocent people, was a tragedy. But it was not a shock. There is a long and bloody history of clinic violence in America, with over 300 acts of violence against clinics, staff, doctors, volunteers, and patients since 1973….
The Latest
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Judaism’s Warning About Rhetoric That Led to Planned Parenthood Attack
The Jewish tradition teaches that language can kill. In fact we learn that the tongue can be so dangerous that it is kept hidden from view between the mouth and the teeth to prevent its misuse, and that there is nothing worse than an evil tongue. The ancient rabbis tell a story of a rabbi…
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How I Kept My Faith in Faith
Several years ago, some friends and I gathered for a “holiday season party” in the days between Hanukkah and Christmas. We ate latkes. We drank eggnog. And we talked about the Maccabees. Around the table went a debate, about the Maccabees and the Hellenists in the battle for cultural supremacy in ancient Judea. I expressed…
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Jenny Slate Reads Lena Dunham’s Erotic Jewish Comedian Fanfiction
If you thought the virulent reaction toward her “Dog or Jewish Boyfriend?” New Yorker piece would scare Lena Dunham from commentating on the Jewish male id, you would be very very wrong. In the most recent episode of “The Organist” podcast, comedian Jenny Slate reads Lena Dunham’s “Erotic Male Jewish Comedian Fan Fiction.” In these…
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Pirouettes and Plenty of Pink at Gaza’s Only Ballet School
The group of girls, ponytailed and dressed in pink, stretched their arms out to the sides and pivoted onto their toes, trying desperately to hold still. Eagle-eyed, the instructor surveyed Gaza’s latest crop of would-be ballerinas. Fifty girls aged five to eight are now enrolled in the ballet school at the Al-Qattan Center for Children…
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Finding Holiness in the Boudoir
The other week I ran into a former client with her husband. With her hair covered, she gave me a secret smile as she stood next to her kippah-clad husband. I didn’t go up to her to say hello. Just several weeks prior this young Orthodox woman came to my photo studios for boudoir photographs….
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For the Women’s Studies Association, the BDS Vote Was Over Before It Began
The results of the vote on the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolution put forth by the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) came over email this past Friday. Of those voting, 88.4 percent or 653 people approved the BDS resolution; 86 opposed. Thirty five percent of the NWSA membership voted. As a longtime member of NWSA,…
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In Praise of Ethel Rosenberg
“The Hours Count,” Jillian Cantor’s second historical novel, includes a personal connection to her subject. The book, mainly a fictional portrait of Ethel Rosenberg, is also a tribute of sorts. Cantor was born on June 19, 1978, the 25th anniversary of the Rosenbergs’ executions. She came upon this bit of karmic information while she was…
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Meet April Baskin, the Multiracial Face of Reform Judaism
To meet April Baskin is to see the change in American Jewry personified. A tall, confident, 32-year-old with an impressive mane of curly hair and a wide smile, the self-described “multiracial Jewish woman of color” is the newest executive in the Reform Jewry movement. Her offbeat job title – vice president for audacious hospitality –…
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