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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Ruthie Madoff Breaks Her Silence
After Judge Denny Chin threw down a hefty 150 year sentence to Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff, his wife, Ruth, who has remained quiet in her posh Upper East Side penthouse throughout the entire situation — except when she made the mistake of leaving her home in March to buy cheese — finally broke her silence on…
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Jewish Labor Leader Comes Out, Promotes Gay Marriage Bill
Just in time for New York’s gay pride events, the president of the Jewish Labor Committee, Stuart Appelbaum, announced publicly that he is gay. Appelbaum is thought to be the first president of a major international union to come out. Appelbaum is the president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents 100,000…
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A Woman With the Title ‘Reb’
This week I had the privilege of studying with a remarkable teacher, Reb Mimi Feigelson, who taught a three-day seminar on “soulful prayer” at the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education. Reb Mimi is a teacher in the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at Los Angeles’ American Jewish University, where she teaches rabbinics and is the…
The Latest
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On Madoff, Charity and Morality
More tawdry news on the Madoff front. Lawsuits have been filed against Stanley Chais and Jeffry Picower for receiving what appear to be suspiciously generous and apparently preferential returns for their investments. An investigative report by ProPublica documents that Picower and his family withdrew an astonishing $5.1 billion from Madoff — more, apparently, than Madoff…
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Study: Children of Survivors Fare Better Than Expected
It’s a story you hear time and time again in Israel and in the Diaspora. Somebody made it through the Nazi death camps and went on to lead a relatively normal life after the war, but for years, did not speak of their experiences to their nearest and dearest. In numerous cases, the survivor in…
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Shmuley: I Foretold Jackson’s Demise
In the wake of Michael Jackson’s death, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is, not surprisingly, all over the place — weighing in on the Gloved One’s decline and demise. In this opinion piece in today’s Jerusalem Post, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach writes that, back in 2004, he foretold Michael Jackson’s untimely death: In the two years that I…
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Finding Michael Jackson in Genesis
Even as we adjust to a world without Michael Jackson, we’re still left grappling with the question of how to understand the gifted and bizarre “King of Pop.” A few years back in the pages of the Forward, Ami Eden offered up some insights, drawing upon what might seem like an unlikely source: the Book…
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Rabbi Shmuley on the Gloved One, z”l
As you’ve probably heard, pop superstar Michael Jackson died today at age 50. The music icon had a short-lived, but well documented, friendship with Rabbi (and author and television star) Shmuley Boteach. In 2003, the British Web site “Something Jewish” published a Q&A with Rabbi Shmuley about his relationship with the King of Pop. Read…
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Not To Brag But…
The Forward scooped up 10 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, it will be announced today at the annual conference of the American Jewish Press Association. A release on the honors is below: The Forward, America’s most influential Jewish weekly newspaper, garnered ten 2009 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism, the…
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The Myth of the Endangered Male
I recently witnessed a panel in honor of Father’s Day titled Dads, Dudes, Doing it, where four very bright feminists from different generations charted how their identities were shaped by the men in their lives. Gloria Feldt, Kristal Brent Zook, Deborah Siegel, and Courtney Martin parsed maleness from “a penis and a paycheck” to the…
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You Might Also Like … Hitler Up Close
Photographs of Hitler that were literally buried underground are now available in snappy bright albums on Life Magazine’s Web site. Four themed Web galleries (intimate portraits, Hitler among the crowds, Hitler’s interiors, and Hitler’s childhood) contain images by Hitler’s personal photographer and close friend, Hugo Jaeger. The Web site is somewhat hard to navigate —…
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Books In ‘Something We Said,’ Richard Pryor’s daughter finds words to discuss the unspeakable
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Opinion It’s time for Jews who love Israel to give up on Zionism
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Opinion Israeli and diaspora Jews live in different realities. The Israel Day parade proved it
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News In Congress, a measure to tighten U.S.-Israel military ties sparks backlash on both sides of the aisle
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Yiddish World Israel names a street after renowned Yiddish poet Abraham Sutzkever
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Opinion ‘Remember the Liberty’ has become code for ‘Israel Is Evil’