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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International Agunah Day Solves Nothing
Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz), Carmel (Menashe Noy) and Elisha (Simon Abkarian) in GETT. Courtesy of Music Box Films Purim is this week. I hope to join a women’s reading of the Megillah (Scroll of Esther). I like hearing women’s voices in the synagogue, center-stage. I admire Queen Vashti’s nerve, even though she does get her head chopped…
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Fifty Shades, Secrets and Cervical Fluid
As the executive producer of The Salon, it is my privilege each month to bring together fascinating, accomplished, and brilliant Jewish women — including our host, the editor-in-chief of The Forward, Jane Eisner, and our co-host, Rachel Sklar, founder of TheLi.st and Change the Ratio — to share their insights and observations about the issues…
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How the Fast of Esther Became International Agunah Day
Image by Jeff Belmonte, via Wikimedia Commons They say that history repeats itself. They say that human nature never changes. They say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All these phrases which do or do not express common wisdoms do actually come together when examining the connection between Ta’anit Esther (the fast of…
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Queer Jewish Women Need to Create Their Own Spaces
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman In a recent piece on The Sisterhood, J.E. Reich writes that there is a lack of safe spaces for queer Jewish women particularly in New York City. She attributes this to silence of the mainstream community to create space for us. I disagree with the idea that we need Jewish organizations to open the door to…
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A Journey of Recovery From Eating Disorders
Eating disorders are not confined to race, sex or religion, and with the stigma of mental illness making so many sufferers unwilling to admit to eating disorders, it is harder still to reach out and help. The Jewish community may be just as susceptible to such eating disorders as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa as…
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Chocolate Wars and the ‘Angry Mizrachi Woman’
Screenshot via Youtube Getting between a woman and her chocolate is a dangerous proposition. Although not usually one that causes a brawl, as occurred on an Israir flight from Tel Aviv over the weekend. It was classic Israeli misbehavior caught on video, with irate passengers demanding life, liberty, and the best of duty-free confectionary. Yet,…
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WATCH: Postpartum: The Musical
HelloFlo is back. The company that perviously gave us “Camp Gyno” returns with a new video ad, this time about the horrors of new motherhood. In the clip, a new mom rehearses a Broadway show reveling the “terrifying abyss of motherhood” and featuring songs about cracked nipples with lines like “For what it’s worth: There’s…
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The Lesbian Rabbi Battling Israeli Racism
Noa Sattath. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi Noa Sattath seemed destined for a career in high-tech. But all that changed when, upon completing her military service, she told her friends and family she was gay. “I came from the privileged parts of Israeli society, and this act of coming out connected me to the whole issue…
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No, We Didn’t Let Barry Freundel Happen
Not unsurprisingly, given that I’m a victim, I’ve read almost everything printed about the Barry Freundel case since it first broke back in October. I have made myself available for interviews not because I want to be known as the woman whose rabbi taped her naked, but because I think it’s important for reporters to…
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Combining Forces to Battle Breast Cancer
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman Dozens of Torontonians have gathered to nosh on latkes and blintzes at a downtown café’s weekly Yiddish cabaret. Tables are squeezed close together, and as the performance winds down, my college roommate and I start chatting with our neighbors. The two women and their pre-teen daughters are out celebrating the girls’…
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Israel’s Police Sexual Harassment Problem
Israel police officers by Mark Probst via Wikimedia Commons. There has been an earthquake in the Israeli police force, and the institution may never be the same again. No less than three senior police officers have been accused of sexual harassment in the past two weeks, including one who is now under house arrest, and…
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Yiddish וואָס צוויי פּאָעטן האָבן געשריבן וועגן זייערע מאַמעסWhat these two Yiddish poets wrote about their mothers
מאַני לייב און ראַשעל וואַפּרינסקי, וואָס זענען יאָרן לאַנג געווען ראָמאַנטיש פֿאַרבונדן, באַשרײַבן ביידע דער מאַמעס פֿרומקייט.
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Fast Forward Brad Lander woos Jewish voters in NYC mayoral race with Talmud and Hebrew
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Fast Forward Trump administration condemns destructive pro-Palestinian protest at University of Washington
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Opinion 80 years after Germany surrendered, we’re still learning the real lessons of World War II
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