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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It’s Okay To Be Ambivalent About Woody Allen
On Saturday, Woody Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow published a letter in the New York Times in which she claims that her father sexually abused her at age seven. She calls upon Allen’s famous friends to not dismiss her story, and says that Allen is “a living testament to the way our society fails the…
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Garson Romalis, Canada’s Abortion Doctor
The world has lost a Jewish man who was a champion of women’s rights. His name was Dr. Garson Romalis, and he was a member of my extended family. I knew Gary as my cousin’s husband, but the rest of the world knew him as a staunch advocate of women’s reproductive healthcare and a woman’s…
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Those Limelight-Seeking Orthodox Feminists
It’s probably because I’m female — and Orthodox to boot — that, much as I try, I find it hard to relate to Jewish men who feel religiously unfulfilled unless they keep the center stage to themselves, and the women out of their club. Rabbi Avi Shafran, the high-profile Haredi spokesman for Agudath Israel, implies…
The Latest
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‘Having it All’ as an Ex-Hasidic Woman
Lean in, Sheryl Sandberg, another feminist bites the dust and realizes she can’t “have it all.” This epiphany came as I boarded a Delta flight from Montego Bay to JFK two weeks ago. My husband and I took a weeklong trip to magnificent Negril Beach, or what I like to call Paradise, Jamaica, to celebrate…
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Throwback Thursday: A Yiddish Actress of Many Names
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. Shaindel Kalish is pictured here, in 1934, in her role as Manuela the young heroine from the acclaimed Weimar production “Madchen in Uniform,” which was translated and re-staged for American audiences as…
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Sarah Silverman Ends ‘Are Women Funny?’ Debate
“Okay, last night I was visited by Jesus Christ, like the Jesus Christ. And he told me he was really bummed by all these people who use my name for intolerance and oppression.” And so begins Sarah Silverman’s latest viral video, in which Christ comes to Sarah’s living room to tell her that she has…
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The State of the Uterus
As the President spent his Tuesday prepping for a crucial State of the Union Address, Congress was busy passing yet another sweeping anti-abortion bill, this time H.R.7, a bill designed, primarily to further restrict insurance coverage of abortion, particularly for women with fewer means. It was part of another banner week for attacks on women’s…
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ScarJo’s Other SodaStream Problem: The Sexist Ad
No matter where you stand on Israeli politics, it’s hard not to see Scarlett Johansson’s decision to become a spokesperson for SodaStream as a bold choice. Unfortunately, this boldness didn’t make its way into the commercial itself. Instead, the ad relies on the most cliche, ickily retro advertising tropes imaginable. If you are reading this…
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Chava Willig Levy on Independent Dependence
A few years ago, Chava Willig Levy went to a concert at Carnegie Hall. Having contracted polio at the age of 3, the 62-year-old lecturer and writer uses a motorized wheelchair. “Let the wheelchair pass,” a man a few steps in front of Levy and her friend said to his companion, as the former two…
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Sex Therapy and the Holocaust
The fact that Dr. Ruth Westheimer, arguably the most famous sex therapist alive today, is also a Holocaust survivor always struck me as nothing more than a surprising coincidence. Survivors went on to occupy a range of professions — why not sex therapy, too? But it turns out that enduring trauma — or at least…
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Leah Vincent’s Journey
Leah Vincent’s new memoir, “Cut Me Loose: Sin and Salvation After My Ultra-Orthodox Girlhood,” has a happy ending. But the rest of the book has a different tone. Born Leah Kaplan, Vincent grew up in Pittsburgh, the daughter of a prominent yeshivish (black hat) rabbi. She was one of 11 children in a household she…
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