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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I’m Observant — and I Wear Tzitzit
A few months ago, I was at the Kotel with my family. When I was leaving the site, a woman stopped me. She grabbed one of the knotted white fringes dangling from under my shirt and, in Hebrew, exclaimed “Tzitzit!? But this is forbidden!” No, I told her, it is permitted according to all major…
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Untold Story of Jewish Feminist Pioneers
Historian Melissa R. Klapper recently won a National Jewish Book Award for “Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890-1940.” In the book, Klapper, a professor of history at Rowan University in New Jersey, shows us that decades before Steinem and Friedan became households names, Jewish feminists were already working to make…
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Dawn Zimmer, Thorn in Chris Christie’s Side
(JTA) — Eight years ago Dawn Zimmer was a stay-at-home mom and freelance photographer. Now, the 45-year-old Democrat, elected the first Jewish mayor of Hoboken, N.J., in 2009, made the front page of The New York Times. Since last week, when she accused Gov. Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor of trying to make Superstorm Sandy recovery funds…
The Latest
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First African American Hebrew School Grad
Welcome to Throwback Thursday, a weekly photo feature in which we sift 116 years of Forward history to find snapshots of women’s lives. In December 1933, 15-year-old Verlette Valentine, class valedictorian at Institutional Synagogue of New York, was featured in the Forverts as the first African American to graduate from a Hebrew school. At the…
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Maybe You Shouldn’t Call that Baby Cute
I call babies cute. Most of the time it is because they are actually quite cute, and occasionally because it is the polite thing to say. Calling babies cute is second-nature for most of us. It is what the spit-up splattered parents want to hear, and in those pre-personality early months there is really nothing…
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Roe at 41 Marks a Time of Limited ‘Rights’ and Access
Roe v. Wade turns 41 today. The past few years have witnessed the landmark Supreme Court, decision, which legalized abortion in 1973, become reduced to a shadow of itself, as state after state passed restrictions which winnowed down the ability to access abortion. We have covered these developments again and again at the Sisterhood. The…
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Cyber Bullying on Jewish Sites
While bullying is sadly not new, cyber bullying can often seem like the cruelest playground. I have been writing for the Sisterhood since March of last year, and I have been bullied in the comments section below several of my articles. As a professional writer, performer and advocate I have been subjected to public commentary…
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Avital Norman Nathman on ‘Good Mother Myth’
In “The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood To Fit Reality” (Seal Press, 2014), editor Avital Norman Nathman asks the question: “What does it mean to be a good mother?” Contributors, including Joy Ladin, Jessica Valenti, Sarah Tuttle Singer and Jennifer Baumgardner reflect on the realities of motherhood and combat the myth of the “Pinterest perfect”…
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My Jewish Wedding Felt Like an Intermarriage
I was supposed to be a low-maintenance bride. I am usually “the easygoing one.” Our florist would disagree. As I stood in front of his 20 foot refrigerator and pointed to every type of flower, telling him which to put in our arrangements, and which should, under no circumstances , even come near our venue,…
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Having Kids Makes Some Parents More Productive
Hey working parents, I’ve got some good news for you. (Finally, I know.) Your kids might actually make you more productive. According to a new paper with the unwieldy title of “Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Grove of Academe,” mothers of at least two children are, on average, more professionally…
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Jewish Suitmaker Wins Accidental Gay Following
Three years ago, Toronto-born Daniel Friedman was a newly minted architect whose livelihood evaporated when the economy crashed. Today, hundreds of people are living in Friedman’s designs — but sewing machines and measuring tapes are his work tools. With business partner David Kusy, Friedman runs Bindle and Keep, a New York-based bespoke mens- and womenswear…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: אונגערישע אויסשטעלונג ווײַזט רמזים פֿון הילצערנער שיל פֿון 18טן י״הTidbits: Exhibit displays remnants of 18th century wooden synagogue
אינעם 18טן יאָרהונדערט איז די קהילה אין נאַזנאַ געווען די צווייט גרעסטע אין גאַנץ טראַנסילוואַניע.
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News Is the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism the new Red Scare?
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Opinion Trump’s cuts are a war on Jewish literature, thought and history itself
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