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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Rabbi: Women Can Work, As Long As They Feel Bad About It
As any working mother knows, balancing the competing demands of raising children and successful functioning in the workplace can be stressful and guilt-inducing. Now, as Elana Sztokman wrote on The Sisterhood, a West Bank rabbi has decided to make the situation even worse for the women in his religious community, who might, heaven forbid, feel…
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How Modern Orthodoxy Is Losing Touch With Modernity
Women are banned from running for public office, according to Rabbi Elyakim Levanon of the Elon Moreh settlement. In a startling regression to 19th century gender inequalities, Levanon responded to a query by a woman requesting permission to run for her local council, with a resounding “no.” The first problem is giving women authority, and…
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It’s Time to Stop Apologizing for Our Presence
I really like Devra Ferst’s recent Sisterhood post about how women too often precede a question with an apology. And there’s so much more to – unapologetically – say! It took me a very long time to stop apologizing before asking questions myself, to stop feeling wracked with self-doubt about my ability to keep up…
The Latest
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How Women Are Learning To Speak Up — in Print
You’d think that at the age of 43, I’d know what I’m good at. But there I was recently participating in a workshop run by Katie Orenstein of The OpEd Project, completely freaked out at the notion of having to identify what I am an expert in. My mind was a blank. I knew I…
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Precocious Yeshiva Girl Starts a Cursing-Prevention Group
Talia Weisberg, a freshman at Manhattan High School for Girls in New York, is the founder of Bleep!, and its devoted to curbing cursing among kids and teenagers. Sisterhood contributor Rebecca Honig Friedman recently interviewed Weisberg by email to find out what the bleep Bleep! is all about. Rebecca Honig Friedman: What is Bleep! and…
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A Holiday From the Holidays
For the first time in months, I am actually sitting down to work and I am able to actually think about work. There are no Hanukkah candles to light, no Purim costumes or mishloach manot gift baskets to prepare, no campfires to plan for Lag B’Omer, no Passover cleaning. I don’t have to take the…
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I Never Give To Beggars — Am I a Bad Jew?
Dear Bintel Brief, Hardly a day goes by without homeless and less fortunate people begging on the transit system. They ask for money and sometimes food, and I feel sorry for them, but never give to them, or engage at all. I value tzedakah, I volunteer and give to numerous charities, but I’m conflicted about…
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Pearl Abraham Branches Out
After the recent attempted car bombing by a Pakistani-born American citizen in New York’s Times Square, Pearl Abraham’s fictional exploration of the radicalized mind in “American Taliban” (Random House) is especially pertinent. The book is loosely based on on the story of John Walker Lindh — the young American who joined the Taliban, returning to…
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Why Women Must Stop Saying ‘I’m Sorry’
Earlier this week, I stumbled upon a blog post written by a woman who said that, at the all-girls Orthodox day school she had attended, she was taught to never ask a question or make a comment without preceding it with an apology. Regrettably, I can no longer find that particular post, but similar sentiments…
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Is It Kooky To Leave Your Child Alone at the Playground?
Is Lenore Skenazy a kook? Skenazy — a Forward contributing editor and columnist — is getting used to being called that, “a moron” and worse for her idea that we should stop helicoptering over our children and leave them more to their own devices. Her latest proposal is that on Saturday May 22, at 10 a.m.,…
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Digest: Should Kagan Join JDate? Is Sarah Palin a Feminist?
Sisterhood Digest: • Maureen Dowd, writing that Elena Kagan “as resigned herself to a cloistered, asexual existence,” suggests that the nominee for the Supreme Court join JDate. • Australia says no to a burqa ban. Read our recent Sisterhood post on recent efforts to ban the veil. • The online Jewish women’s magazine 614 is…
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