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
-
Orthodox Zornberg Receives Coveted Reform Award
In an unprecedented cross-denominational move, Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, who describes herself as an Orthodox Jew, received the highest honor of the Reform Movement — the Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award. Zornberg, the Jerusalem-based writer and teacher, delivered an acceptance speech that was no less heartfelt for going well beyond the normal hackneyed…
-
Woman of the Wall Arrest: A First-Hand Account
As they do at the start of every month, Israel’s Women of the Wall went to the Kotel on Wednesday to celebrate Rosh Chodesh. But this time, instead of services concluding with the Musaf prayer, the experience ended with a 25 year old participant, a medical student who was wearing a tallit and carrying the…
-
Hergé, Creator of Tintin: Antisemitism for all Ages
Steven Spielberg’s 3-D Motion Capture film “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” is due for release in 2011, but already publishers are hurrying to offer books about the Belgian artist Hergé (born Georges Remi in 1907) who created its characters. The graphic tales of the blank-faced reporter Tintin, his dog Snowy, and…
The Latest
-
New Mammogram Guidelines Don’t Apply To Those With BRCA Mutations
New, less-aggressive guidelines for breast cancer screenings do not apply to women at high risk for the disease, such as those who have tested positive for the BRCA genetic mutations, which are most common in Ashkenazi Jewish women. Released Monday by the government-funded U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the new guidelines increase the recommended age…
-
How Do I Get My Son’s Family To Eat Dinner Together?
Dear Bintel Brief: I’m very upset. My son, daughter-in-law and their four children NEVER sit down together at the dinner table. One child works at Abercrombie & Fitch; another is being tutored for the SAT (Sheer Agony Test); another is on a traveling soccer team; the fourth child belongs to a Jewish motorcycle club called…
-
Offbeat Israel: A College Reference Contingent on Joining the IDF
Want a reference from your teacher? Then enlist in the army. There’s deep concern in the IDF about draft dodging, with the figure of army-age males avoiding compulsory military service nearing a third. Of recent, there have been several unusual moves to stem the trend. One was an advertising campaign harnessing the power of sex…
-
Why It’s Hard To Be a Zionist and a Feminist
The overwhelming assumption in many circles is that anti-Zionism is the only authentic feminist position. This knee-jerk position assumes that caring about human rights and equality necessitates a view Israel as a great patriarchal enemy. I support Jewish-Muslim women’s peace efforts, and I completely support the notion that women must play a key role in…
-
Sex and Shtetls for Californians
UC Berkeley’s “Sex and Shtetl” Yiddish conference got off to a hot start last night with bawdy Yiddish folksongs expertly performed by Cantor Sharon Bernstein. This was followed by Dr. Ada Rapoport-Albert’s juicy lecture on illicit sexual practices among the followers of the false Jewish messiah, Jacob Frank. Monday’s fare expects to be just as…
-
Asking for Help: Men vs. Women
Common wisdom and social-scientific studies hold that men are less likely to ask for help than women are, a phenomenon that spreads across arenas as mundane as asking for directions and as serious as getting help for clinical depression. But according to a recent survey, there’s one realm in which men are more likely to…
-
Conservative Women Rabbis Celebrate Changes, Still Face Struggles
Much has changed for female rabbis in the 25 years since the first woman was ordained in the Conservative movement — including acceptance by peers and congregants — but some things, including more difficulty getting good jobs and resentment from other women, remain challenging. These issues were explored at a conference at the Jewish Theological…
-
McWhorter Questions Efforts To Save Dying Languages
In an essay in the recent issue of the World Affairs Journal, linguist and Columbia literature professor John McWhorter questions the effort to save dying languages: What makes the potential death of a language all the more emotionally charged is the belief that if a language dies, a cultural worldview will die with it. But…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward What the election of Mark Carney would mean for Canadian Jews and Israel
-
Fast Forward Over 500 rabbis sign letter rejecting Trump’s antisemitism agenda
-
Film & TV In ‘The Rehearsal,’ Nathan Fielder fights the removal of his Holocaust fashion episode
-
Fast Forward AJC, USC Shoah Foundation announce partnership to document antisemitism since World War II
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
