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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For Rachel Berry — and for Real Girls, Too — It’s Not a Choice Between Hook-ups and Romance
Caitlin Flanagan’s use of Rachel, the brassy Jewish character from the Fox television show “Glee”, as an anecdote for her Atlantic essay “Love, Actually” about the renewed interested in the “boyfriend story,” or old-fashioned romance, is a bit flawed. Yes, Rachel wants love, but she is hardly an innocent romantic. Early in the series she…
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Is Elena Kagan ‘One of Us’?
One of the biggest questions Jewish groups and feminists have debated since the nomination of Elena Kagan is whether it’s possible to effect genuine but incremental change from within or more desirable to work outside the system. This kind of insider/outsider anxiety is particularly potent for contemporary Jews, who are mindful of our historical status…
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The World’s ‘Most Influential’ Jewish Women
In honor of Shavuot, the Jerusalem Post printed a special supplement on “The Fifty Most Influential Jews in the World” — and there are only seven women in the list. A woman doesn’t even make an appearance until number 10 — US Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. Bizarrely, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg comes…
The Latest
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On Shavuot, Kaddish for the Heroine of My Youth
This week, for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, I will light a Yahrtzeit candle in my studio apartment and attend the memorial Yizkor service. The superstitious may disapprove since, thankfully, I have not lost anyone in my immediate family, for whom I would be required to go through these mourning rituals. Yet, I take this…
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Becoming the People of the Pixel?
Just as the Internet has wiped Encyclopedia Britannica off our bookshelves, I am among those who speculate whether or not e-readers, like the iPad and Kindle, will soon render all tangible text obsolete. I wonder if those in future generations will ever turn down the soft paper corner of a page. For my Orthodox Jewish…
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My Friends Who Want To Host Me Have Bedbugs!
Dear Bintel Brief, I’m traveling to visit friends who have just discovered that they may be harboring a bedbug infestation in their new home. They have called an exterminator but he hasn’t come yet, so they have no idea what type of problem they’re dealing with. I’ve read that bedbugs cause lots of trouble and…
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Noa Raz, Beaten for Wearing Tefillin, Speaks to The Sisterhood
Noa Raz wasn’t totally surprised when, on May 11, a Haredi man stared at the marks on her arm at Be’er Sheva’s central bus station. The 30-year-old Israeli woman prays each morning wearing a tallit and tefillin and the latter sometimes leaves imprints on her pale forearms. As she waited to board a bus to…
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How Sexism Keeps Women Out of the Kitchen
One of the wonderful things about living in Israel is that Jewish holidays are all-encompassing. Around Rosh Hashanah, for example, every commercial — whether for outdoor furniture or dishwashing liquid — somehow includes apples and honey. Around Hanukkah, public displays of light and candles on every street compete with the smell of sufganiyot. Around Passover,…
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Are We Confusing Hype With Hiddur?
I’m no fashion designer, but I have been thinking a lot lately about haute couture and prêt-à-porter. That’s because I am a Jewish educator and two big Jewish events have come to town. The “Reinventing Ritual” exhibition has arrived at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum from The Jewish Museum in New York, and Dawn 2010,…
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Motti Elon, at Center of Sexual Abuse Scandal, Returns to Teaching
The Rabbi Motti Elon story was back in the news this week. It seems that despite all the hubbub over the investigation into his alleged sexual abuse of students, and despite his agreement not to continue teaching, Elon has been giving classes, some of which are even being posted on the Internet by his fans….
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Clever Feminist Art, Courtesy of Drisha
In the mood for clever feminist art that is at once subversive and respectful of Jewish text? Then check out Drisha’s exhibit and afternoon of performances by its Arts Fellows on Sunday at 2 p.m. Drisha, a center for advanced Torah study for women right near Lincoln Center, has a fantastic program for artists of…
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