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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Jews, Talking To Our Families About Violence Against Transgender People Is Our Obligation
On Sunday night I was in the balcony of a packed sanctuary of a Brooklyn synagogue that was hosting a literary event. A loud, cracking sound split the air behind me. Another time, a disruption like that would have triggered automatic head-swiveling, that jerk of human curiosity that forces you to turn with interest towards…
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The Ultimate Hanukkah Gift Guide For Everyone On Your List
To quote the great Adam Sandler, we don’t just have one night of Hanukkah, we have eight crazy nights. And on at least one of those nights (or, if you’re really insanely generous, all eight of those nights), gift-giving is a must. If you’re like most American Jewish families, the sheer number of people…
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Think Orthodox Students Don’t Want To Talk LGBTQ Issues? Not Anymore At YU
In a rare, student-led effort to address LGBTQ issues, dozens of Yeshiva University students crowded a classroom in the university’s Midtown campus on Tuesday evening for an event on topics such as coming out as gay on campus, creating social change and becoming allies to queer peers. Guest speaker Ben Katz, a Yeshiva University graduate…
The Latest
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Popsicles, Prayers and Pictures: How Jews Celebrated The Vote In 2018
Two weeks ago, as the midterm elections approached, we asked to hear your voting stories. “Voting is a habit, a learned behavior, but our culture doesn’t prize it or encourage it,” Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner wrote recently. We wanted to know — who, in the American Jewish community, does prize and encourage civic engagement? How…
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The Secular Case For A Biblical Sabbath
“It was Grandfather’s [watch], and when Father gave it to me he said I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire … I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to…
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7 Jew-y Gifts To Bring Your Thanksgiving Host
The days are getting shorter, the crisp autumn air is dropping to a permanent chill, and stores are beginning to look a bit more festive. In other words, it’s almost Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, despite being a secular holiday, is uniquely Jewish with its emphasis on giving thanks and spending time with family. And if you’re going…
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Leaving The Doomsday Worldwide Church Of God — For Judaism
On Saturday mornings, my father roused us with, “Boys, girls, get up! You got to make hay while the sun shines!” We exited our rooms — there were two or three or four siblings per room, depending on the year, and we fought over access to the one bathroom. Then we ate a quick breakfast…
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Why We Should Teach Our Children Talmud Folk Tales — Instead Of Grimm’s Fairy Tales
A few weeks ago, I bought tickets to take my kids to what promised to be an exciting performance at a local Jerusalem theater. “Aggadot L’Yeladim,” the advertisement read – legends for children. The Hebrew word used for legends, Aggadot, is the term used in Talmudic studies to refer to the literary parts of the…
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Rockets Or No, Chabad’s Mitzvah Tanks Still Rolling In Israel’s South
The atmosphere was deceptively quiet in the small moshav of Netiv HaAsara, only four hundred meters north of the Gaza Strip, on Tuesday afternoon when Mendy Hartman, a 45-year old Hasid from Bnei Brak, approached an armored IDF jeep and handed the soldier sitting in the driver’s seat a honey cake with a wrapper bearing…
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Confessions Of An American Jewish Teen, After Pittsburgh
When I was younger, I never liked being Jewish. To me, my religion meant Hebrew school after normal school, fidgeting at Torah services, and being told to believe in an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent entity without sufficient space to question. And so, after my Bat Mitzvah in 7th grade, I stopped going to Hebrew High School….
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Ady Barkan Will Die For Your Sins: Meet The Man Giving His Last Breath To Democracy
You’re dying, but Ady Barkan, 34, is dying faster. Maybe there are abnormal cells in your skin; maybe there’s plaque in your interior arteries; maybe you’ll be hit by a car. Ady Barkan’s death is less of a mystery. His motor neurons are dying, melting his muscles and gradually rendering his body uninhabitable. As he…
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