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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50 Is Not the New 40
Photo credit Jeannie Cole There was a brief moment there, must of been my early 20s, when I thought that women of a certain age were not subject to the same contradictory demands and humiliations as younger women. I believed that we all would eventually reach a point when projecting the right image on the…
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When Hasidic Boys Grow Up Without Real School
Getty Images My 9-year-old son hates school. I explain to him that “hate” is a strong word used only in rare instances, and that school — as awful as it may seem to him — is essential to pursuing a career as an adult. I explain to him that education is power, that I would…
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Too Sexy for Purim?
(Haaretz) — It seems terribly appropriate that International Women’s Day was happening this year as Israelis were caught up with preparations for the holiday of Purim — and not just because it is the only Jewish holiday with a woman, the heroic Queen Esther, who saved her people by charming a king, at its center….
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Not Becoming a Rabbi Was the Best Decision of My Life
Thinkstock There are a lot of things that I’m never going to be: a morning person, someone who remembers to check the weather report. A rabbi. It’s especially good that I am not this last thing, because it would have been the biggest mistake of my life. Throughout college, there were moments stacking up, like…
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Clara Zetkin and International Women’s Day
Clara Zetkin (left) with Jewish Marxist Rosa Luxemberg in 1910 // Wikimedia Commons Today is International Women’s Day. Two German women, Clara Zetkin and Luise Zietz, first proposed the holiday in 1910 at the International Women’s Conference in Copenhagen. A year later, the holiday was celebrated for the first time. Neither woman was Jewish, but…
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Treating Babies Like Adults
Thinkstock A few years ago at a holiday party at my brother’s house one toddler began hitting another toddler. After a few minutes the parents of the boy being hit asked the parents of the hitter if they wouldn’t mind telling their kid to stop. “No. We can’t. We don’t believe in telling our son…
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Helen Broza Helped Israeli Women Fly
Forward Association Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Fresh off the boat in this photo — specifically the liner LaGuardia arriving in New York in November 1949 — is 27-year-old Helen Broza. She was the first Israeli Defense…
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Reclining and Leaning In Aren’t Only Options
Getty Images Foreign Policy columnist Rosa Brooks wrote a call to arms last week inciting women of the world to recline. In the piece, Brooks explains that she tried to lean in, a la Sheryl Sandberg, stepping up at work, volunteering more at school, pushing, pushing, pushing as hard as she could until, finally, she…
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How Pat Boone Saved My Jewish Soul
Memoirist and abuse survivor Sue William Silverman tackles her relationship to “the tribe” in her latest book. Sue William Silverman is nothing if not a courageous memoirist. Her first two books, “Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You” and “Love Sick” were each taboo-breakers, detailing in turn the author’s sexual abuse at the hands…
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Haredi Wives to Sara Netanyahu: ‘Be Our Esther’
Mazal Tov! Sara Netanyahu has been crowned Queen Esther of Israel. Eighteen wives of Haredi Members of Knesset penned a letter to Mrs. Netanyahu urging her to use her powers as Queen of the Israeli empire to influence her husband, Benjamin Netanyahu, Emperor of all Israelis. According to Israel National News, the women pleaded with…
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Abortion Belongs in TED Talks, And Beyond
Last week, feminists launched a flurry of actions demanding the inclusion of abortion rights as a topic tackled by trendy TED talks. A representative from TED, interviewed by Jessica Valenti for her column in the Nation, had deemed the subject too political and controversial. This admission was followed by a petition from NARAL and general…
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