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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Why Do Men’s Voices Lend Credibility to Jewish Women’s Issues?
As a woman, I sometimes feel like I’m in a catch-22. I want to bring attention to issues concerning women, but I also want men to pay attention. When women are doing all the talking, we run the risk of marginalizing ourselves, of turning our ideas into “women’s stuff.” By inviting men to speak about…
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What Makes a Body ‘Womanly’?
In the style world, there has been a lot of talk lately of a possible return to “curvy,” or “womanly,” figures on the runway. In The New York Times, for example, fashion critic Cathy Horyn wrote the following about a recent Marc Jacobs show: But to me, this collection wasn’t as much about returning to…
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Help! I Define Myself By My City Life
Dear Bintel Brief, I’ve spent the past 7 years living in New York City. Like many New Yorkers, I am a transplant originally from a small town in a flyover state. Living here was always my dream, and it offers tremendous opportunity. Food, culture, and interesting people and ideas are at my fingertips here, and…
The Latest
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Toward a More Equitable Passover
Passover — the holiday during which seemingly every Jewish family or group of friends puts its own spin on the celebration of freedom — is here. But as much as seders deviate from each other, there are some variables that remain constant. For instance, countless Jewish women have doubtless made the same joke as they…
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Of Oranges and Coffee Beans: Feminist Seder Rituals Decoded
Come seder night, Jews the world over will be sharing age-old traditions, like drinking four cups of wine and hiding the afikoman. But at what seems like a growing number of seder tables, the old traditions are being joined by newer ones which reflect the lives and voices of women. Perhaps the best-known new tradition…
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The Ten Plagues — According to Jewish Women
This post is adapted from a speech, “The Ten Plagues According to Jewish Women,” that Pogrebin gave at the Downtown Seder, held March 25 at the City Winery in Manhattan. Plague #1: Dam. BLOOD — Women have this plague every 28 days or so, and except when we’re ready to procreate, most of us welcome…
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Shel Ma’alah, Shel Matah: Seders Ideal and Real
At this point in the Pesach lead-up, a liberated woman’s mind turns from the inside of her refrigerator, which she is examining with curiosity — what year did I buy this pesto? — to her hopes for this year’s seder. For some women, this leads to the avid purchasing of new haggadahs or the creation…
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How Pesach Divides the Community Along Class Lines
If you want to be a religious Jew today, you have to have money — a lot of it. There’s no way around it, and it’s especially obvious at this time of year. Perhaps it was different way back when, but in Orthodoxy Version 2010, you need two of everything in the kitchen, including two…
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Pesach: The Mother of Invention for the Prevention of Chametz
Who’s stressed about cleaning for Pesach? Me, me! Yes, ladies, it’s that time of year when the impending festival brings out the inner balabusta in even the most latent of homemakers. I know of women who spend weeks, and I mean actual weeks, preparing their homes to be chametz-free. Women — there may be men…
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Audio Slideshow: Challenging Rabbinic Misogyny — With Paper Cuts
When I was told that there would be a professional paper-cutter visiting the Forward offices, my first reaction was to stock up on Band-Aids. But British artist Jacqueline Nicholls, in town for the recent Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance conference, is no paper-wielding ninja. An Orthodox feminist, Nicholls turned to the traditional Jewish art of paper-cutting…
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Towards a More Democratic Feminism
In a just-posted Newsweek article, Jessica Bennett discusses her discovery of feminism at age 28. She writes that it wasn’t until she entered the workforce that she realized that things weren’t nearly as equal as she thought they would be: So for all the talk about feminism as passé, mine wasn’t a generation that rejected…
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