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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Offbeat Israel: Happy Passover 3322?
Happy New Year! Yes, it’s a little-known fact that for one of the leading Modern Orthodox rabbis in these parts, the start of Passover is New Year. Rabbi Yaakov Medan, a rosh yeshiva or academy head at Yeshivat Har Etzion in the West Bank — considered the Harvard of modern-Orthodox scholarship — follows an often-overlooked…
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Daphne Merkin Stops ‘Acting Like the Virgin Mary!’
My favorite essayist, Daphne Merkin, has a piece in the new issue of O: The Oprah magazine, about discussing the topic of sex with her 19-year-old daughter. Titled “Stop Acting Like the Virgin Mary!” — after what her mother exclaimed when the writer brought up fears relating to her own virginity as a young woman…
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Former Mayor: Assisted Suicide Is Not Necessarily the Answer
Dear Bintel Brief: Until very recently, I considered myself an average American woman. I am foreign-born, but I’ve been here for many years — and I love the country that adopted me. I voted diligently in every election. I was also very active and productive. I worked as a volunteer. I was athletic. Suddenly, without…
The Latest
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Print Journalism Just Read its Own Obit and Got Angry – In Yiddish
Ever longer grows the list of newspapers whose print editions are closed, closing or in imminent danger. But while the chances of getting newsprint on your fingers from any of the Rocky Mountain News, New Haven Register, Philadelphia Inquirer, New York Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Tucson…
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On Iran, Roger Cohen v. Jeffrey Goldberg
One day after Atlantic writer and blogger Jeffrey Goldberg announced that he would be “checking out for a while” — taking a blogging break to “buy some horseradish, among other things” — Roger Cohen, in a New York Times op-ed that referenced Goldberg’s recent interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, accused Goldberg (a Forward alum) of being…
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From Heroin Chic to Chicken Soup Heroine
According to newspapers in Britain, Kate Moss has gone kosher-style — in the preparation of food, if not in its consumption. An article in the Daily Mirror suggests that the waifish supermodel was inspired to go kosher-style by Stasha Palos — she is the stepdaughter of her pal Sir Philip Green (the billionaire businessman) and…
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‘The Secrets’: The Best Lesbian Yeshiva DVD of the Year
Yes, this is about lesbian yeshiva girls; yes, there is some hot action; yes, the actresses themselves are sexy. But, in the best Horatian tradition (“delight and instruct”), there is plenty of instruction hiding behind the sensationalist delight. But Avi Nesher’s “The Secrets” is no sordid potboiler with a couple of redeeming insights. Although only…
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Offbeat Israel: Seder v. Soccer
So the Children of Israel made matzo, we are told, because they were in a huge rush to leave Egypt. Well you will never guess where Israel’s largest matzo bakery, Matzot Aviv, has exported matzo to this year. Egypt, a company source tells the Bintel Blog. The shipment has already arrived and Egypt’s Jewish community…
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36 Jews in Bahrain — and at Least One in Afghanistan — Staying Put
In its second feature about Jews in the Arab-Muslim world as many days, the New York Times has a video about the “Last Jew in Afghanistan,” Zablon Simantov. Jews have a long history in the country — dating back at least to the 7th century Common Era — but today, the vast majority live elsewhere….
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Former Mayor Ed Koch Has Some Advice for Forward Readers
Edward I. Koch, the 105th mayor of New York — and the city’s second Jewish mayor — will be the Forward’s next guest Bintel Brief advice columnist. Koch, 84, is an author of more than a dozen books, including, most recently, “The Koch Papers: My Fight Against Anti-Semitism” (Palgrave, 2008), written with Rafael Medoff. A…
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Merkin’s Legal Woes
There are signs that with Bernard Madoff convicted and jailed for orchestrating an estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme, the attention is now shifting to the so-called “feeder funds” that supplied Madoff with much of the cash to keep his schemes going. On April 1, the Massachusetts secretary of state sued the Fairfield Greenwich Group. And…
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Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
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News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
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Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
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News As Israel attacks, what is life like for Jews in Iran?
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Fast Forward Rep. Max Miller says driver called him a ‘dirty Jew’ and threatened to kill his family. A local doctor turned himself in.
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Fast Forward NYPD investigating threats to Zohran Mamdani, including one saying ‘Check your beeper’
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Fast Forward Trump defers Iran attack decision; Iranian foreign minister rejects talks unless Israel stops bombing
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