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
-
The Making of American Feminism
If you have plans tonight, cancel them. Instead, sit down in front of your TV to watch “MAKERS: Women Who Make America” on PBS at 8:00 PM EST. (Check local listings if you live in other time zones.) Otherwise, you will miss a remarkable three-hour journey through 50 years of the women’s movement. Even for…
-
Barbra Streisand Steals the Oscars Show
My favorite segment of the Oscars, every year, is the “In Memoriam,” in which the ceremony takes a break from the terrible jokes and bloated musical numbers and faux displays of humility to honor those colleagues who have died in the past year. Unlike the rest of the awards ceremony, the “In Memoriam” doesn’t just…
-
Aly Raisman on Dancing With the Stars?
Aly Raisman won the hearts of Jews and non-Jews around the world when she won a gold medal for the gymnastics floor exercise at the London Olympics last summer. But now the girl who did insane flips and twists to the tune of “Hava Nagila” might be trying to win another piece of hardware —…
The Latest
-
Silent and Invisible on Purim
Should women dress up on Purim to reveal their true selves or to mask them? For religious Jewish women and girls in Monsey, New York, it was a moot question yesterday: They were only supposed to make themselves silent and invisible. An ad in the free weekly circular “Community Connections,” which is distributed widely in…
-
Tears for Anene Booysen
It is estimated that a woman born in my country, South Africa, has a greater chance of being raped than of learning how to read. Here, 144 women report rape to the police every day — that’s six cases reported every hour. These cold statistics from the Medical Research Council (MRC) tell us that a…
-
An American Mom in Israel
In August, my family and I left Ann Arbor for a yearlong stay in Jerusalem. Ann Arbor is hardly a place devoid of intellectual and cultural ferment. Yet coming to Jerusalem was, for me, the chance to enter into a different ferment of ideas in a different language: Jewish ideas in Hebrew. At the summer’s…
-
Moms Demand Gun Control Legislation
Before December 14, 2012, Sara Smith Smirin, who lives in California’s Silicon Valley, had no plans to fly the next month to Washington, D.C. However, the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that day induced her to make the trip to the nation’s capital on January 24 to witness Senator Dianne Feinstein of California…
-
Purim’s Beauty Myth
Esther saved the Jewish people because, so they say, she was smart and brave. When she learned of the genocidal plot of Haman, the vizier to her husband, King Ahasueres of Persia, she revealed that she was a Jew and pleaded for her people to be spared. Esther’s daring act of approaching the king, confessing…
-
Leave Friedan and Dunham Alone
The 50th anniversary of the publication Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” has inspired many to reconsider the book, warts and all. One of the abiding criticisms of Friedan’s book over the past few days is that it was limited to the worldview of an upper-middle class white woman. Today, Lena Dunham, who very well might…
-
Women’s Messy Name-Change Situation
Dear Abigail, You end your recent essay about changing your last name after you get married in a state of ambivalence. Simply put, there is no easy answer to the age-old and hugely common dilemma of how to preserve one’s family while simultaneously creating a new one. Just as surely as I want to share…
-
Smuggling Tallitot for Women at Western Wall
Recently, Amichai Lau-Lavie, founding director of Storahtelling and a second-year Jewish Theological Seminary rabbinical student, published a blog post about illegally smuggling tallitot (prayer shawls) into the Western Wall for use by Women of the Wall on February 11, Rosh Hodesh Adar. “I broke the law by smuggling prayer shawls into the site of the…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In a Haredi Jerusalem neighborhood, doctors’ visits are free, but the wait may cost you
-
Fast Forward Chicago mayor donned keffiyeh for Arab Heritage Month event, sparking outcry from Jewish groups
-
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
-
Fast Forward Latvia again closes case against ‘Butcher of Riga,’ tied to mass murder of Jews
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
