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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How Whole Foods Resembles a Kosher Kitchen
Last month Whole Foods announced that it has become the country’s first nationally certified organic grocer. In order to receive this seal, the chain implemented a series of rules to avoid any commingling of conventional and organic unwrapped products. To anyone who has ever tried to separate milk and meat, these are rules that seem…
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Finding Meaning in Declining Circumcision Rates
I was living in Berlin when I found out that I was pregnant. My doctor there, a very exuberant Chilean woman, was doing an ultrasound around 14-weeks when she suddenly paused near the baby’s abdomen. “Oh! I see a tiny, tiny, oh so small little penis!” she exclaimed. This, of course, did not thrill my…
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The President Is on the Line
Every year, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism sets up a mega-conference call for its rabbis — a sort of spring training for the High Holidays, with discussion about sermon topics, text study, and the like. And every year, the RAC invites guest speakers to participate. This year, they scored a home run. At…
The Latest
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Labor Troubles for 5WPR?
The controversial public relations firm 5W Public Relations is the subject of an “ongoing investigation” by the New York Department of Labor, the department told the Forward. The investigation prompted an allegedly stormy visit to 5WPR’s offices on Monday, which was first reported on the gossip Web site Gawker. Gawker has reported in the past…
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How To Behave at an Upsherin
The true test of a little boy’s character must be how he reacts when a roomful of adults come at him with scissors and start cutting his virgin locks. If this sounds like some sort of primitive tribal ritual, well, it is a ritual of our tribe — it’s called an upsherin (or upshernin, uphsernish,…
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The Haredi Women Who Are Relegated to One Side of the Street
Every so often — recently increasingly often, it seems — I come across a story that is something like this one, which describes the growing extremism in the form of misogyny of the far-right edge of Orthodox Judaism. The Ynet article states: A group of ultra-Orthodox men took to the streets of the haredi neighborhoods…
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A Lifeline for Jewish Women With Ovarian Cancer
The genetic mutations that greatly increase a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer — mutations that are common among Ashkenazi Jewish women — also put her at high risk for ovarian cancer. So it makes sense that Sharsheret, which, since 2001, has been offering free support services to young Jewish women living with (or at…
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‘Homeless’ Benefactor ‘Lost in Translation’
Last week, Hebrew University announced a posthumous $100,000 donation from a homeless concentration camp survivor, but did not release the benefactor’s name. Well, the donor has been identified as Ida Fischer. And as it turns out, Fischer wasn’t homeless; she was a frugal Midtown Manhattan resident who fled Hitler’s Europe with her family, but was…
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‘Mad Men’: Bring Back the Smart, Scrupulous, Sultry Jewess
One of the most beguiling characters on “Mad Men” was a smart-minded, sexy Jewish broad — bring her back! As early-60s ad-world drama “Mad Men” gears up for its third season, I have an almost obsessive desire to Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), return to the show. Rachel is the Jewish career woman and sultry beauty…
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Israeli Academic Discovers the History of Fall Colors
In a few weeks time, sidewalks will be lined with autumn leaves. In America, many of the leaves will be red. In Europe, they will mostly be yellow. Until now, the reason for the difference has been a mystery. But in a theory just published in the Journal New Phytologist, Haifa University academic Simcha Lev-Yadun…
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Why Orthodox Women Are Choosing Natural Birth
Looking for a doctor to deliver your baby when you’re 30 weeks pregnant isn’t exactly ideal. But when I moved back to Brooklyn earlier this month, after living in Europe for the past year, that’s exactly what I had to do. In my perfect world I wanted to find a caring midwife who could deliver…
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