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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Eric Cantor to the Forward: Administration Is ‘Bullying Israel’
The lone Jewish Republican in Congress is taking the Obama administration to task over its latest spat with the Israeli government. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor phoned White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on March 15 — asking him to convey to his bosses the message that it is time to ease pressure on…
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Should Jews Support the Tea Party Movement?
Dear Bintel Brief, I am a Jew who rarely delves into political matters, but I can’t help but take notice of the Tea Party movement. They are all over the news with their anger and rebellion. I’m attracted to some of the things that they stand for, like constitutionally limited government, and fiscal responsibility, but…
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Israeli Teens Say No to Arab Rights and Compliant Army Service
A new survey of Israeli high school students makes for depressing reading. When the Jewish sample was asked whether Arabs should have equal rights, some 49.5% said no. An even higher percentage, 56%, said that Arabs should not have the right to run for office. Particularly alarming is that a repressive attitude towards Arabs and…
The Latest
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‘Plan A’: NCJW’s Campaign for Contraception
When my neighbor told me that “Plan B” was the name he had picked for the sports bar he was opening, I just about choked. Until I told him, he had no idea that it’s the name of the morning-after pill; he went with the name anyway. So I thought it very clever when I…
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Podcast: How Orthodox Day Schools Can Embrace Feminism
It’s a story of a Sisterhood post done good. Last month, Elana Sztokman, a regular contributor to this blog, proposed a model for infusing Orthodox day schools with the kind of feminist values that have informed partnership synagogues and have advanced women’s leadership roles within Orthodoxy. The buzz that her blog post generated secured her…
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Passover Cleaning: How I Learned To Embrace Israel’s National Sport
In the weeks leading up to Passover, housecleaning is transformed from a private activity into something of a national competitive Israeli sport. In my corner of greater Tel Aviv suburbia, spring means the smell of ammonia, not roses, is in the air. Walk into the supermarket, and you have navigate past shelves full of cleaning…
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Ariel Levy Has Some Advice for Forward Readers
New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy will be the Forward’s next guest Bintel Brief columnist. At The New Yorker, Levy has profiled the intersex South African runner Caster Semenya, the fashion designer Marc Jacobs, the director Nora Ephron, and Cindy McCain, wife of former Republican presidential hopeful Senator John McCain. Previously, Levy wrote for New…
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Younger Women To Headline JOFA Conference; Event To Focus on Leadership, Education
It’s been three years since JOFA’s last national conference in New York, which may explain the seam-bursting program, with more 50 different sessions in the less than 24 hours. It seems that organizers of the 2010 conference, which begins Saturday night, have decided to cram three-years’ worth of pent-up Jewish feminist activity and thought into…
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Set in Westport, a Jewish Retelling of ‘Sense and Sensibility’
In Cathleen Schine’s “The Three Weissmanns of Westport” — currently on The New York Times’ extended bestseller list — Jane Austen’s tale of two very different sisters, “Sense and Sensibility,” is transposed to the world of Manhattan and Connecticut Jewry. Miranda Weissman is a headstrong, romantic and a disgraced literary agent, while her practical, prim…
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Who’s To Say Tefillin Barbie Is a Rabbi?
“You know Barbie’s getting a new job,” says my friend Mimi to me. “People can vote for her new career.” I put tefillin on a Mattel Barbie doll in 2006, unwittingly creating the Jewish icon now known as Tefillin Barbie Tefillin Barbie has a religious-girl denim skirt, a T-shirt, the tallit and tefillin more generally…
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Israel’s New PR Scheme: Healthy Zionism or Sinister Stalinism?
So, Yuli Edelstein has decided to turn every Israeli in to an ambassador. As part of a new campaign called “Explaining Israel” he is putting out pamphlets, running television advertisements and operating a website asking citizens to get involved in a public diplomacy drive for Israel. “We decided to give Israelis who go abroad tools…
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Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
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News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
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Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
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Music After decades of waiting, we’re finally getting a Bob Dylan-Barbra Streisand duet
In Case You Missed It
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Fast Forward Explainer: What the Israeli occupation of Gaza would mean for Israelis and Palestinians
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: אונגערישע אויסשטעלונג ווײַזט רמזים פֿון הילצערנער שיל פֿון 18טן י״הTidbits: Exhibit displays remnants of 18th century wooden synagogue
אינעם 18טן יאָרהונדערט איז די קהילה אין נאַזנאַ געווען די צווייט גרעסטע אין גאַנץ טראַנסילוואַניע.
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News Is the crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism the new Red Scare?
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Opinion Trump’s cuts are a war on Jewish literature, thought and history itself
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