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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Dancing at a Wedding — on Yom Kippur
I was sipping Champagne and presiding over witness signatures on a marriage license under the shade of a redwood tree as the sun started dropping over the ocean below the Santa Cruz Mountains. The newlyweds (my friends) and their families exchanged embraces and congratulations following the heartfelt wedding ceremony I had just officiated. The only…
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Books Firestorm Over Canada’s ‘Guys Only’ Prof
If you’ve been anywhere near a Canadian newspaper or news website in the last week, then you’ll know that a scandal involving author and English professor David Gilmour has been dominating the headlines. The dustup is in response to remarks Gilmour made discounting Canadian, women and minority writers. I asked some Canadian Jewish writers and…
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Do Women Behave Differently At Work?
In her new book “Wonder Women,” Barnard president Debora Spar claims that, despite what feminists have long-argued, women do have inherent differences from men when it comes to workplace behavior. As Spar explains in an excerpt in Salon: In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, however, a renegade, slightly retrograde view has started…
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Why Read Marriage Announcements?
As I’m sure you know — or maybe you overheard some girls weeping recently and weren’t sure why — Andy Samberg got married to his girlfriend songwriter Joanna Newsom in California last weekend. But he’s not the only Jewish star to get married recently; a somewhat less-famous member of the tribe, Cornelia Griggs, was married…
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Pregnancy and the Pressure to be Thin
Over the last eight months, my pregnancy has been a mixed bag, and it’s not just because of the fatigue, nausea and adjustment to the fact that there is a tiny human growing inside me. When I was in high school and college, I experienced eating and body image problems. I spent many years healing…
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No, It Really Does Smell Like Roses
It’s official. Everyone is a Jewish mother. Well, insofar as every mother has an inflated sense of the absolute kvell-worthy perfection of their children. In a recent Christian Science Monitor story about why we want to eat our babies (more on that in a minute), they refer to a study that found that mothers rank…
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Discovering My Family’s Legacy as Jewish Partisans
Michal Oshman, a trailblazing Jewish educator who has been nominated for special recognition by the Jewish Partisans Educational Foundation at its upcoming annual gala, always sensed her family’s past was different from that of other families. Growing up in South Florida, she noticed that her grandparents were always invited to light a candle at her…
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Lena Dunham Wore the Right Dress
As the Forward’s Anne Cohen said this week, Lena Dunham’s dress at the Emmys was “awful.” I’ve never watched an awards ceremony in my life, but looking at the red carpet collection the next day is always something to look forward to. Oohing and aahing over stunning ensembles I could never afford is like treating…
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Instead of Shul, Escorting at an Abortion Clinic
It’s more or less the same scene every Saturday morning: A car service pulls up in front of the women’s health clinic where I escort. It pauses, drives further up the street and turns around. The woman inside pays the driver, then studies the crowd of 20 or so protestors praying loudly in front of…
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Is Religion Good for Women?
Asking if religion is good for women, as Moment magazine recently did, is like asking if music is good for men. There are no clear answers when asking about the relationship between an incredibly fluid concept with a rather broad category of living beings. Still, this doesn’t stop many of the contributors to the symposium…
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Back to Square One With B’nei Mitzvah
As I listened to friends and family begrudgingly make decisions about Hebrew school for their kids this year, I started a conversation on my personal blog about alternatives to the typical after-school programs. As I mentioned, I was not asking on behalf of my own family. My kids go to a non-Orthodox day school, attend…
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