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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Debating Amira Hass’ Lifetime Achievement Award
A recent full-page ad in The New York Times announced that Israeli journalist Amira Hass will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation at an October 20 luncheon at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Hass is a reporter and columnist at the influential Israeli newspaper Haaretz who is best known for her…
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Streisand Sale! Buy Babs’s Bits for Charity!
See, I don’t really care what famous people are reading, wearing or decorating with or, were doing all many of things with, but are now selling for charity. But since I know that lots of people want to know what Barbra Streisand does with all her books, knick-knacks, bric-a-brac and godawful hearth pottery (p92) —…
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Sukkot and the Rise of Christian Tourism in the Holy Land
Thousands of Diaspora Jews are making their way to Ben Gurion Airport today, heading homeward after a Sukkot visit to Israel. And so are around 8,000 Christians who also fixed their visits to coincide with Sukkot. The Christian Feast of Tabernacles, which comes from the same Biblical source as Sukkot, is the one Christian festival…
The Latest
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How Can I Fire My Flower Girl?
Dear Bintel Brief: My oldest and dearest friend, one of my only friends with children, really wants her daughter to be the flower girl in my forthcoming wedding. Initially, I thought it was a good idea, as neither my husband nor I have young nieces. But now, I’m rethinking the matter: My friend’s daughter is…
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Being Composer Emmerich Kálmán Means Never Saying You’re Sári.
The Hungarian Jewish composer of light music, Kálmán Imre (1882 –1953), better known by the Germanized version of his name, Emmerich Kálmán, continues to enjoy cult status in East and Central Europe. American audiences, though, might need reminding about Kálmán’s past glories like the Broadway hit “Sári” from 1914, which will be presented in concert…
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Disgraceful New Sarah Silverman Vatican Video Veers into Political Satire
Sarah Silverman has really done it now. She’s moved from the gentle humor of “I’m f***|ing Matt Damon” and the cerebral politics of the “Great Shlep” to shameless self-promotion of her site, Sell The Vatican. On that site you can see her flaunt her ideas, call herself a “genius” and show a soft-focus picture of…
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Why it Shocks To See the Anne Frank Footage
Last week, my 15-year-old son, a Facebook junkie like all his peers (and his mother), showed me the newly public only extant video footage of Anne Frank, which has raced around the Internet, mesmerizing many of us. I think I’ve watched it 20 times. The all-too-brief clip of a girl unknowingly at the apex of…
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Avoiding a Hijacking by Lulav Rod
Many a peeved passenger has arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport this week. Some Diaspora Jews pay big money for their lulav or palm branch, waved with an etrog and two other species in synagogue over Sukkot. But airport security staff around the world have apparently become convinced that the protective lulav bags used to…
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Susie Essman: Why I Love Susie Greene
If Larry David’s alter-ego on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” functions as the neurotic male Jewish id, then Susie Greene is his screaming, cursing Jewish female super-ego. One of the most joyous things about watching “Curb” is the long shouting matches between Larry and Susie over social convention. On a recent episode, for instance they sparred viciously…
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On Simchat Torah, Boredom Is Catalyst to Religious Change
Simchat Torah begins in Israel tonight, a day before it starts in the Diaspora. It’s the festival that is notoriously dull for women. If it’s an Orthodox synagogue you’re in, as the vast majority of Israeli ones are, women sit there for hours and hours while every man in attendance is called to the Torah,…
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Philip Roth in the Curious Case of the Dog and the Poisoned Hamburger
Last night French channel 5 showed a new interview with Philip Roth filmed especially for the French release of his novel “Exit Ghost” (Exit le fantôme). Which is available to watch here and which they report here. In it, Roth is complimented on his vast, sunny, quiet Manhattan apartment, whereupon he complains to the French…
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