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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Letter to Myself at 20
Dear Sarah at 20, Right now you are embarking on your 20s, a moment that Hollywood tries to sell to young women as carefree and glamorous. But as our culture has increasingly acknowledged over time, your 20s are actually confusing and difficult. Having officially survived them, I am writing you a guide to the expected…
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Israel, A Democratic Orthodox State?
On Monday, 10 women were detained for participating in prayers while reading from the Torah and wearing religious garments at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. There are many wrongs in this event, but unfortunately, it will probably happen again until a major change occurs. Israel is by definition a Democratic Jewish state. Ever since it…
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A Sexless Marriage (For Two Weeks of the Month)
I feel cheated. I was in the ninth grade when I first learned that when I was to get married, I would only be able to touch my husband for about half of each month. I had known about sex for about eight years at that point, and no one had cared to mention to…
The Latest
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Yenta’s Real Yiddish History
This post is in response to “Yenta’s Dirty Roots,” which ran on The Sisterhood on February 10, 2013. One of the many interesting things about Yiddish is that no one is entirely sure how it started. Though it originated in Medieval Europe, its exact roots are the subject of competing hypotheses among scholars. What isn’t…
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Cupid in a Kippah
On Valentine’s Day, one is absolutely the loneliest number. It helps if you can make plans with some single friends, but most people would prefer to be out with their perfect person. Valentine’s Day isn’t our holiday, religiously speaking — Jews have Tu B’Av — but it is an American holiday, and Valentine’s Day nicely…
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Women of the Wall: Canaries in the Coal Mine
Ten women were arrested by police at the Kotel Monday morning after celebrating the start of the Jewish calendar’s most joyous month, Adar, while wearing their prayer shawls. This time, they had a large crowd of supporters and were joined by several of the men who, as young soldiers and paratroopers, liberated the Kotel in…
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Romance Is Not Dead — Yet
Recently, a series of major articles have raised the alarms on the demise of dating and marriage. Alex Williams’ New York Times piece “The End of Courtship” lamented the death of traditional, chivalrous dating, and Amy Webb’s Wall Street Journal story encouraged women to stretch the truth in their online dating profiles lest all the…
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Reproductive Rights Go Both Ways
The news from Israel that Ethiopian Jewish women were given birth control shots without their consent has attracted quite a storm of argument, disillusionment and shock — as has the news of the huge number of extra-legal “black market” abortions, both addressed recently at the Sisterhood. I don’t pretend to be an expert on the…
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Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic
Several years ago I saw the documentary film “The Last Abortion Clinic,” about the Jackson Women’s Health Organization (JWHO) in Jackson, Mississippi. As the title indicates, JWHO is the last clinic in the state that provides abortions; it serves women from all over Mississippi, many of whom are low-income and have trouble paying for their…
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Beating My Eating Disorder, With Love
I wasn’t happy for seven years of my life. It wasn’t so much that I was sad; it was more that I simply didn’t let myself be happy. Sure, I had fun and had friends and went on trips, but the pervasive feeling in my life was one of guilt; If I was watching a…
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Leave Sara Netanyahu Alone
The induction of the new Knesset this week raised some crucial issues for women in Israeli society, but you’d never know it from following the news. The blogosphere was abuzz this week, but not with stories about the significant strides made by women — for example, the record number of women Knesset members and party…
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