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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Too Fat for Surgeon General — Or for a Shidduch
Last week, President Obama nominated widely respected Dr. Regina Benjamin, to be the country’s next Surgeon General. It took no time at all for the question to be asked whether the winner of the coveted MacArthur “genius” award is too fat to hold the post because she appears to be overweight. Even at a time…
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Offbeat Israel: Medical Clowning, Neighbors, and Dead Sea PR
Israeli doctors are having a laugh at the taxpayers’ expense. Literally. In 2006, Haifa University’s Department of Theatre began a special bachelors’ program for a group of medical clowns who wanted to build on their knowledge. It has now decided to launch a degree program that will train and accredit medical clowns. The new program…
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New ‘Hecksher’ for Ordination of Orthodox Women Rabbis
When Rabbi Avi Weiss announced in May that he is opening a center for the training of female Orthodox clergy, it was heralded by many as a watershed moment. At the Kolech conference in Jerusalem earlier this month, women’s ordination was much-discussed, the idea endorsed by Rabbi Yoel Bin Nun, and participants decided that female…
The Latest
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Media Roundup: ‘Taliban Mom,’ Shabbat in Prison, Egg Trafficking
• Bad-mommy news out of Israel is in abundance this week, between Jerusalem’s “starving mom,” whose arrest sparked street riots, and the child abuse conviction of “Taliban mom” of Beit Shemesh. Sure puts these “bad mommies” in perspective. • In the wake of the ordination of Alyssa Stanton, the first black female rabbi, Moment magazine…
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Type Has Something to Say
Fact One: People seem to have a lot more time on their hands than me. Fact Two: Hitler is an excellent object of fun. YouTube offers almost infinite testimony to those facts. One of the cult memes currently infesting the internet video portal is a series of alternative comedy subtitlings to Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2004 drama…
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Never Too Late To Liberate
Just when you thought that you couldn’t wait for Pesach: A gift that is fun for all the family all year round. Exorcise those House of Bondage blues, for $19.95 you can punch Pharaoh almost indefinitely for what he did to ME when I was a slave in Egypt.
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Cronkite, Trump, and the Validity of Jewish Marriages
Ivanka Trump’s conversion/engagement to Jared Kushner may be interesting to most readers because of its wealthy-elite-hooking-up gossip factor, but their story is also quite relevant to the controversies that have been surrounding Orthodox conversion in recent years. My unsolicited advice to the happy couple, who shall heretofore be known collectively as Jivanka: Don’t try to…
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OU Booklet Alleges Vatican Collaboration With Hezbollah
A booklet that alleges that the Vatican is in cahoots with Hezbollah was published by a branch of the Orthodox Union and was, until recently, being distributed to Israeli solders. Haaretz is reporting that the booklet — purported to be narrated by a Hezbollah leader who converted to Judaism, changed his name to Avi, and…
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My Husband’s Atheism Is Cramping My Style
Dear Bintel Brief, My husband and I had a Jewish home. We were active members of our synagogue and celebrated all the Jewish holidays. My husband recently declared himself an atheist and gave up on all things religious. I still want to light candles and celebrate Shabbat, have seders, etc., but he refuses to participate….
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Should Ivanka Want a Sheitel…
Welcome to the tribe, Ms. Trump. No sooner had the mikveh water dried from her conversion to Judaism this week than Ivanka Trump became affianced to Jared Kushner. The future Mrs. Trump-Kushner announced their engagement by sending off this Tweet. She completed her conversion this week under the tutelage of Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, who is…
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Pesach With the Kushners
The son is the young Manhattan media mogul who just got engaged to Ivanka Trump. The father is the New Jersey real estate baron who went to jail for tax fraud and sending a prostitute to try to entrap his brother-in-law. New York magazine has a lengthy profile of the Kushners — and, oy, do…
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