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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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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‘Take My Mom…Please’ He’ll Pay $10K If You Find His Mom A Jewish Suitor
Marc Guss is a businessman. He lives on the Upper East Side, with his wife and their Shih Tzu Bichon, Belle. And he’s sick and tired of men on dating sites. “The clientele,” he says. “They’re just not there. I was floored to see the disrespect and apathy.” There are always more women than men,…
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What It Means To Grow An Omer Beard
It’s on Wednesday May 22, 2019 (or on 18 Iyar every year) that we, as a Jewish people, reach peak beard. In the springtime, we committed Jews find ourselves asking some strange questions: “Does an orange belong on a Seder plate?“ “How fluffy can my potato flour cakes get before they look trayf?” And, “Should…
The Latest
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In Israel, There Are Poetry Slams For The Deaf
The audience in the Jerusalem basement bar is silent as Douglas Ridloff takes the stage and begins gesticulating, his expansive and wild movements matched by a series of exaggerated expressions reminiscent of Jim Carrey’s early work. His bald pate gleaming in the spotlight above a stubbled beard, Ridloff cuts a sparse figure in his loose…
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Single Orthodox Women In Israel Choose Motherhood — Thanks To IVF
Yael Ukeles always wanted to be a mother. “Growing up, it was just something I thought about,” she said. “Kids were always important to me. But when I hit a certain age and still didn’t have a partner, I had to figure out a different way.” Ukeles, an Orthodox Jewish woman, lives in Tekoa, an…
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The Jewish Woman Who Had 14 Children — And Ran A Booming Business — In 17th Century Germany
Gluckel of Hameln was a woman trying to have it all – and with 14 kids and a booming business, Gluckel was busier than most. She also happened to be doing this in 17th-century Germany. Gluckel was a prolific writer, and the prolific memoirs she left behind to her children are some of the first…
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Why Yeshivas Must Offer LGBTQ Education
The lessons were designed to prepare children for life in modern Britain. Andrew Moffat, assistant principal of the Parkfield Community School in Birmingham, conceived of the No Outsiders program as a way of introducing LGBT people and the concepts of same-sex relationships and gender identity to children aged 4 to 11. That “And Tango Makes…
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The Holocaust Can’t Be The Essential Component Of Jewish Identity — Here’s Why
Growing up as a millennial in Montreal, I couldn’t escape the numbers. The cashier at the bakery had one. Our synagogue’s “candy-man” had one. Even my second grade Hebrew teacher had one. Today, they are harder to find. The numbers loomed over our parents like a dark cloud — a relentless reminder of the devastation…
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Is the Holocaust Instagrammable?
In the winter of 2013, armed with a bulky coat and fleece-lined boots, I traveled to Poland to see places I’d heard about my whole life around the Friday night table. I went to my family’s hometown, Działoszyce, and to the concentration camps my grandparents survived. In a cluttered Polish archive I found the birth…
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Growing Up With Mengele
Joseph Mengele has always loomed large in my family. His name is often evoked at the family dinner table or on a Shabbat afternoon when we gather in my grandparents’ living room. No one wants him there — yet somehow he surfaces all the same. Childhood sleepovers at my grandparents’ home evolved similar traits. To…
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The Morning After — A Bris In The Chabad Of Poway Community
On the day of the Poway Chabad shooting, a grandfather was in shul receiving an aliyah [Torah honor] in honor of his grandson’s bris the next day. Halfway through his Torah reading, he heard the gunshots coming from the hallway. He instinctively ran, and after Shabbat ended, he asked his grandson’s mohel if he should…
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