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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To Understand America — Read The Bible
What role should the bible play in American politics? A new book attempts to answer the question.
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Top 7 Wineries To Visit In Israel
A journalist once asked Baron Rothschild, “What’s the best wine you’ve ever tasted in your life?”. Rothschild had to ponder for a minute or two, and said: “I can’t remember the name of the winery, the grape or the vintage, but I remember that the woman was charming, the moon was full, and it was…
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I Am An Orthodox Clergywoman, And I Am Changing My Title.
Since my ordination, I’ve been using the title Maharat, the Hebrew acronym meaning halachic and spiritual Torah leader, which was created in 2009 to refer to Orthodox women clergy. A rabbinic title matters. It is a sign of the confidence of teachers, the acceptance of the community, and the weighty responsibility of leadership and religious…
The Latest
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It Is Incumbent Upon Us Orthodox Jews To Tell Our Stories
Paula Eiselt lives between two worlds. It’s not every day that you find a wig-wearing, Orthodox woman behind the camera, appearing at major film festivals, and going to industry parties. Yet, there she is. It’s been a year since , ‘93Queen,’ Eiselt’s acclaimed documentary film about Hasidic Judge Ruchie Freier’s women-led ambulance crew, was released…
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Mastermind Maria Konnikova On What Poker Can Teach Us About Life Decisions
Ed. Note: This interview with Maria Konnikova originally appeared in The Forward on June 11, 2019. Her book, “The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win,” comes out today. Maria Konnikova’s resume reads like the American dream: Harvard undergraduate degree. PhD in psychology from Columbia. Staff writer for The New…
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The Center Cannot Hold
…Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. William Butler Yeats wrote those famous lines in 1919 – against the backdrop of the…
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Of Sacred Items And Gorgeous Tchotchkes: The Kiddush Cup ‘Fountain’
This is the second installment in a new monthly series, “Of Sacred Items And Gorgeous Tchotchkes,” looking closely at the Judaica items that fill our homes. Kiddush is one of those experiences that is nearly universal to Jews all over the world and at almost every level of religious observance. Whether you do it every…
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Shavuot Is About A Poor Convert — Would Your Community Welcome Her Today?
There is no way to place the biblical Ruth in a box. A convert. A widow. A foreigner. A daughter in law. Every label that one might assign to her places her further and further from the center of the community, and more ingrained in the outskirts of Jewish society. Yet, we all want to…
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In A-Wa’s New Yemenite-Israeli Hip Hop Album, Home Is Not A Place — It’s A Feeling
What is a home? In Jewish history, with its centuries of wandering and ritualized longing for a land most never actually saw, circumstances created not so straightforward answers to this question. For the creators of modern-day Israel, the answer was to be found in a state. But for some Jewish refugees that arrived in this…
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Why Does Judaism Have So Many Different Words For ‘Sin’?
In Sarah Perry’s masterful novel The Essex Serpent, set in 1890s England, a young boy asks the local parson to explain the nature of sin as the two are standing on the banks of a river by the ruins of an old ship known as the Leviathan. In response, the parson instructs the boy to…
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In Brighton Beach, A Nostalgia For Oppression
There is something very bizarre about walking around Brighton Beach these days. In Brooklyn’s Little Odessa, you’ll hear the whispers of the victories and disappointments of immigration. Simply stroll down the boardwalk and listen to the conversations, émigré speaking wistfully of what once was, who they were: Back there, “my wife was the director of…
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