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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How Anti-Abortion Activists Are Winning the Debate
Dina Lamdany, the young Jewish feminist blogger behind From the Rib, is looking into abortion-rights organizations at the colleges she is considering. Citing the legacy of strong Jewish women in the abortion-rights movement, she hopes to join Students for Choice or the equivalent at whatever school she ends up at. She writes: So that’s why…
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Hawaii’s Lessons for 5771
I’ve been here in Maui for nearly three weeks — far from my home in Israel nearly 180 longitudinal degrees away — and the contrasts are striking. Drivers stop at crosswalks even if the pedestrian is standing still on the sidewalk. Everyone stops to say a cheery “aloha” to people they pass on the street,…
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Now, It’s the Jewish Men Who Are Wearing Burqas
I’m not one to frequently applaud the approach to female modesty in the ultra-Orthodox community. Particularly during the hottest days of an Israeli summer, seeing Haredi women perspire under layers of clothing, wigs, hats, and heavy wool stockings makes me sweat in sympathy. And over the past years, we’ve seen the birth of the Jewish…
The Latest
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Prime Ribs: BRCA News; Frum Fashion Show; ‘Calendar Women’
Prime Ribs From the Week’s News: • There were no mini-skirts or corsets — or men — at this recent Jerusalem fashion show, featuring tsnius clothing for observant Jewish women. • The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles this summer launched a blog all about mah jongg — the tile game that has long been a…
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Why We Gossip
I’m enjoying this thread on gossip that Sisterhood contributor Sarah Seltzer has taken up has taken up, because I love talk and I love information. And when you combine the two it’s likely you’ll cross the border into the realm of gossip. Does this mean that by extension I also love gossip? Sometimes I do….
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Apples, Honey — and Israel — in My California Backyard
Libi bamizrach va’ani b’sof ma’arav. “My heart is in the East, but I am in the farthest West.” Those were the sentiments of Yehuda Halevi, the Jewish-Spanish physician and poet who lived in the 11th and 12th centuries. They are also mine. However, while for Halevi, “East” represented the Land of Israel, for me it…
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A Meaningful Holiday for Parents of Young Children
Recently, a friend announced that she was not attending High Holy Days services this year. It was not a sign of protest but rather of resignation. Having attended services last year with a toddler, there was no way she was going to try this year with two small children. Even when a congregation offers tot…
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How My (Single) Daughter Became a Balebuste
As a 21st-century version of the balebuste, Sisterhood contributor Elissa Strauss wrote of the joys of being an organized, industrious wife. Although Strauss’s balebuste inclinations were recognized when she was still a little girl, one may argue that she officially entered the ranks of true balebuste-hood when she became a wife. (Other Sisterhood contributors weighed…
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An ‘Advice Goddess’ on the Age of Rudeness
Amy Alkon, the witty syndicated advice columnist behind “The Advice Goddess,” thinks rudeness has reached epidemic proportions. Alkon opens her book “I See Rude People” with a description of being subjected to a stranger’s decibel-crushing cell phone conversation. And woe to the person who shouts out his phone number within earshot of Alkon. She’s at…
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Rabbi Sperber on Why He Supports Orthodox Women’s Ordination
During a recent visit to New York, Rabbi Daniel Sperber — to date the best-known Orthodox religious authority to back the idea of Orthodox women’s ordination — spoke with The Sisterhood about the evolution of Jewish law. Sperber — a Talmud professor at Bar-Ilan University and the author of, most recently, “Women and Men in…
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On ‘Ma’am’ — and Israel’s Sage Approach to Honorifics
Natalie Angier doesn’t like to be called, “Ma’am.” The honorific was the subject of this recent article that Angier — a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer and the author of several books including “Woman: an Intimate Geography” — published last weekend in The New York Times. The article’s subtitle reads, “Defenders of the honorific say it…
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