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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Learn From Talmud on Valentine’s Day
(JTA) — Many students want to emulate their teachers, but at least one early rabbi took this to an extreme. The Talmud records that Rav Kahana was so eager to learn his master’s secrets that he even once observed his teacher having sex. Kahana lay under the bed of his teacher Rav, heard him talking…
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Rivke Basman Ben-Haim’s Credo
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Yiddishland the world over celebrates poet Rivke Basman Ben-Haim’s upcoming 90th birthday next week at Tel Aviv’s Leyvik House. Arriving in the newly founded state having survived the agonies of Kaiserwald and…
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Black German Woman Discovers Grandfather is Nazi Villain
Photo by Sven Hoppe In the mid-1990s, near the end of the period during which she lived in Israel, Jennifer Teege watched Steven Spielberg’s film “Schindler’s List.” She hadn’t seen the film in a movie theater, and watched it in her rented room in Tel Aviv when it was broadcast on television. “It was a…
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Dazzled by Sara Netanyahu
Illustration by Eran Wolkowski/Haaretz I went to Jerusalem last week to meet the First Lady, Sara Netanyahu. I was hoping to get to the bottom of the serious case of Sara-phobia that has overtaken the country. For a long time now, she has occupied a completely disproportionate role in the public discourse. Whenever I mention…
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Mayim Bialik Insists ‘I’m Not Anti-Vaccine’ — But Is She?
Mayim Bialik really, really wants you to know that she is not anti-vaccine. The actress took to Facebook on Tuesday to dispel what she called the “hysteria and anger” around her stance on the controversial subject. Post by Official Mayim Bialik Page. The “Big Bang Theory” star and proud science nerd (she has a Ph.D….
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Is ‘Gett’ a Realistic Portrayal of Israeli Divorce?
Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz), Carmel (Menashe Noy) and Shimon (Sasson Gabay) in GETT. Courtesy of Music Box Films At first glance the subtitle of siblings Shlomi and Ronit Elkabetz’s new film “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” seems odd. The film, after all, is about the divorce proceedings for Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz) and her husband (Simon…
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Women Fight Back Against Jerusalem Modesty Signs
A sign in the entrance to Mea Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem. Photo by Wikimedia Commons / Lisa Mathon Modesty signs in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem are a common sight. The forbidding black headlines generally read, “Please do not pass through our neighborhood in immodest clothes” – with a detailed description of the dress code…
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My Great Talmudic Love Affair
Illustration by Anya Ulinich. From when I was a little girl until I went to college, every Valentine’s Day, I would find a small gift and a card from my parents (or really, my mom) waiting for me at my spot on the kitchen table. Even after I moved out, first to go to college…
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Israeli Media’s Sexist Election Coverage
A political cartoon depicting Tzipi Livni, Stav Shaffir, Merav Michaeli and Shelly Yachimovich sitting around a kitchen table while Yitzhak Herzog washes dishes. “First things first,” Livni says, “we’ll give him the right to remain silent.” Screenshot via Facebook. In some ways the past few years have been very good to women in Israeli politics….
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When Women Wear Kippahs
This week the Forward delved into the world of yarmulkes or kippahs with “Show Me Your Yarmulke: Everything You Wanted To Know About Jewish Headgear.” Alas, the list concentrated on the style choices of men, mostly ignoring a whole subsection of the kippah wearing public: Women. From the classic doily to pink suede, here are…
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LISTEN: Yeshivat Maharat’s Dasi Fruchter on Sacred Space
Courtesy of Dasi Fruchter Jewish ritual adds a holy dimension to everyday life. Dasi Fruchter, who is studying for the Orthodox clergy at Yeshivat Maharat, creates sacred space through new practices that draw on traditional elements. Over Presidents’ Day weekend she will speak about her approaches to ritual, community-building and leadership at Limmud NY 2015….
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