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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The Forward Guide To The Mikveh
Most religions, including the “big three” (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), incorporate water as a means of ritually cleansing the body for religious practice. And in Judaism, the mikveh is a ritual bath filled with rain water used for a variety of purposes, including conversion, marital purity, immersing newly acquired utensils, and preparation of the body…
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In The Arcane Laws Of The Hanukkah Menorah — A Surprising Lesson About Community
If you take a stroll past most Jewish day schools during the month of Kislev, you’ll find that the art project of the month relates to Hanukkah, with children making their own menorahs to take home for the holiday. In each household as the candles are lit, some will focus more on the military victory…
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Tragedy Nearly Broke The Frock. Radical Honesty Saved It.
A year ago, tragedy transformed The Frock forever. On November 9, 2017, Chaya Chanin and Simi Polonsky, the sisters behind the modest clothing brand, were devastated by the unexpected death of Simi’s husband Shua after a three week battle with complications from a stomach virus. The sisters have since given the brand’s 41,000 Instagram followers…
The Latest
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A Comprehensive Guide To The Best Hanukkah Songs Of All Time
“There are no good Hanukkah songs!” Friends, Assyrian-Greeks, countrymen — we need to put this nasty rumor to rest. No, we’ll never have the sheer corporate bandwidth or people power of Christmas, but we don’t need to. We have our own dirge-like classics, anthropomorphic food songs, kiddy jams, and religious hymns! Here they are, categorized…
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In Lakewood, Pushback Against Anti-Vaxxers Is Going Strong
A friend of mine was recently blessed with the birth of a son. A prominent Rosh Yeshiva in the ultra-Orthodox town of Monsey, New York wished him Mazal Tov — and then swiftly advised him to avoid immunizing the newborn. “The needles are very bad,” the rabbi told him. “Immunizations inject lead into your body.”…
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10 Years After Mumbai: Visiting Moshe Holtzberg, And The Indian Nanny Who Saved His Life
The house on the corner of a side street in Afula, a town in northern Israel, looks much like the other houses in this new neighborhood—two stories, flat roofs, beige stucco walls, Toyotas and Subarus parked in driveways, and bikes leaning against carports. It’s easy to imagine this family is like most others here —…
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QUIZ: How Well Do You Know Hanukkah?
Despite having a holiday that celebrates escape from slavery through a magical sea via a frog-based curse, American Jew like to hang our hat on Hanukkah. Sure, we have a cheese-themed holiday, and a mardi gras-Halloween-style drunken costume holiday, and monthly moon ceremonies, but if the Joneses are going to have a big winter blowout,…
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10 Festive Yet Affordable Dresses For Your Hanukkah Party
Hanukkah parties are notoriously difficult to dress for: What’s appropriate? How much sparkle is too much? Will Jim from marketing get sloppy drunk and spill his spiked eggnog all over you? It’s basically a crapshoot. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go all-out; we believe that when it comes to holiday parties, there’s no such…
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10 Perfect Hanukkah Gifts For The New Parent
If there were ever a group of people deserving of gifts during Hanukkah, it would be the new parent in your life. Bringing a baby into this world is hard work. And what better way to celebrate the miracle of the victory of the weak over the strong than with the miracle of life —…
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Why You Shouldn’t Talk Politics With Family Members This Thanksgiving
We’ve forgotten a great deal of age-old wisdoms over the years, but here’s a reminder about a rule most of us grew up with: Religion and politics have no place at the dinner table. In my family, either topic might have been a welcome distraction from fighting about everything else in our lives; politics and…
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In Wake Of California Fires, Jewish Mourning Customs Can Teach Us How To Console
The image of the menorah on the top of a Malibu hill, surrounded by the smoldering landscape of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps, is perhaps one of the most harrowing to come out of the fires ravaging California. For me, a California-based rabbi, it is at once a symbol of both destruction and survival. With…
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