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 False Reasoning Behind the Hasidic Ban on Women Driving
Last week, a ban issued by the Belz Hasidic community against its women driving, backed up by the threat that children of offenders will be expelled from school, unleashed a media frenzy. All the major British national papers and news outlets, along with numerous foreign media rushed to cover a story that is more naturally…
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Did Dr. Ruth Use the Talmud to Justify Rape?
Famed sex therapist and beloved IDF sniper, Dr. Ruth Westheimer has been making the media rounds touting her new book, “The Doctor Is In: Dr. Ruth on Love, Life, and Joie de Vivre.” And a few recent interviews have revealed some she holds on sexual consent. In an interview with Diane Rehm yesterday, the subject…
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The Hard Earned Lessons of Going ‘Dutch’ on a Date
“Don’t let a boy ever pay for your dinner,” my mother warned me when I entered my teens. “You must have a say about where you’re going and what you’re doing.” And she put her hard-earned money where her mouth was. When at twelve I went with my childhood friend Ray to the movies, she…
The Latest
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Netanyahu’s Right-Wing Government is Sexist, Too
The traditional picture of the government ministers taken at the President’s Residence last week speaks for itself. Here they stand, our public servants, who (almost) never serve the public. Here they stood, our female ministers, alongside their male counterparts, a dash of color, like a decoration swallowed by a sea of dark suits. Although someone…
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How Israel’s New Coalition Agreement Affects the Rabbinate
Israeli Rabbinical Court Judges, in accordance with Orthodox tradition, are all men. These Judges wield enormous power, in accordance with Israeli civil law, granted to them by the Knesset. The law states that Israeli State Rabbinical Courts have sole jurisdiction in determining the fate of all of Israel’s residents who are Jewish or wish to…
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Gloria Steinem, Ruth Bader Ginsberg Get Feminist Emojis
The most recent Apple iOS8 update included over 300 emojis to convey anything from pizza cravings to hand-clapping excitement. But amidst the crowned princesses, tap-dancing playboy bunnies, painted nails and flamenco dancers, there was an F-word-sized hole in our emoji hearts. Where were the Feminist icons of our dreams? Ladies, the good people over at…
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Grieving (and Getting to Know) My Sister
The scent hit me before I saw it. Sweet, suffusing, almost overpowering. I turned around, and there it was: a lush, magnificent, profusely blooming lilac. I had to stop and smell it. I was instantly transported to the backyard of my first house, the one we left when I was seven. Hanging over, and growing…
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What ‘Mean Girls’ Can Teach Us About Shavuot
To the young women of my generation, the movie “Mean Girls” is a modern day classic. The premise is simple: 16-year-old Cady (played by Lindsay Lohan) is dropped into a public school for her junior year after having been homeschooled in Africa. There, she falls in with the popular crowd, first as an anthropological study,…
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Barry Freundel Nightmare Isn’t Over for Victims
Watching a downcast Rabbi Barry Freundel being led away to face incarceration immediately after he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison on May 15 may not have healed the trauma and pain of his victims, but it marked a milestone for many of them. Two of the many women in the…
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Pulpit Plus One: Being Part of the Team
“Pulpit Plus One: The Secret Lives of Rabbis’ Husbands, Partners, and Wives” features the voices and experiences of the partners of pulpit rabbis. In this interview series, takes an honest and lively look into the nuances of a complex role. Malya is a 34-year-old accountant, married to Daniel, an assistant rabbi at a Reform congregation…
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Stop Minimizing Barry Freundel’s Actions By Saying He is Nonviolent
One of the most infuriating responses to the Freundel scandal I‘ve heard is the argument, “But it wasn’t rape.” As if to say, what he did was not such a big deal — after all it’s not categorized as a “violent” crime. In one really frustrating exchange I had, a radio host kept insisting that…
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