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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Bintel Brief: Dr. Ruth on *Beshert* Troubles
Dear Dr. Ruth, Some years ago, I met the person I believe to be my beshert. This person is long married. I resisted marriage because I did not feel it fair to my now-spouse to marry while I still carried the sense of a beshert elsewhere. Finally, however, realizing that the other would never be…
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Ex-Mossad Chief: Israel Can’t Consummate Peace With Neighbors When Uncle Sam’s in the Bed
The former head of Israel’s Mossad, Efraim Halevy, has some harsh words about American foreign policy in the cover story of the June issue of The Atlantic. The story, by journalist David Samuels, is a fascinating, in-depth exploration of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s ambitious effort to straighten up the mess that is the Middle…
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The Passion of Roseanne
Roseanne Barr has been flaunting her love for Jesus — but she’s no Christian Zionist. In a slew of recent Kabbalah-referencing blog posts, Barr has been talking up Jesus (“Jesus is the revolution, and the revolution is Jesus”), while offering up harsh critiques of Israel (“I believe that Israel is a walled in ghetto in…
The Latest
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The Wolfowitz Scandal’s Real Lesson: He’s No Likudnik
Maybe Paul Wolfowitz deserved to get pushed out at the World Bank for helping his girlfriend get a new job and a hefty pay raise. At the same time, though, his critics should at least have the decency to admit that the latest scandal disproves the popular (and unfair) claim that Wolfowitz is a neocon-Likudnik…
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So What if the Guy Wanted to Kill the PM, He Was a Good Worker
The Shin Bet has revealed a plot to assassinate Ehud Olmert. The suspect, Mazab Bashir, a 25-year-old Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, works for Doctors Without Borders. The organization may have done nothing wrong. But officials at the group may want to iron out their talking points. According to The Jerusalem Post, Duncan Mclean, head…
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Michael Lerner Says ‘I’m Sorry’ (in 1,800 Words)
Rabbi Michael Lerner is sorry. The Tikkun magazine editor recently issued an apology to three groups that are fiercely critical of Israel — Jewish Voice for Peace, United for Peace and Justice and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. (UFPJ and the U.S. Campaign are organizing a mass mobilization next month in Washington…
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Reflecting on Falwell
The passing of Rev. Jerry Falwell is sure to fuel the already burning debate in the Jewish community over whether to embrace pro-Israel conservative Christians. For decades, the Moral Majority founder was unyielding in his support for Israel, and recently invited one of the country’s leading Jewish liberals, Reform movement leader Rabbi Eric Yoffie, to…
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Eye on the Book Review: Stubbed Out and Dressed Up
A word of praise for an oft-overlooked genre: the newspaper illustration. This past Sunday’s New York Times Book Review offered the Jewishly minded reader two especially good examples of the art — drawings that with a few quick brushstrokes manage to capture their subject’s essence. The first, accompanying Christopher Hitchens’s new book, “God is Not…
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The Bintel Brief Is Back: Dr. Ruth Dishes on Marriage Pressure and More
EDITOR’S NOTE: This column marks the return of the Forward’s famed Bintel Brief. after an absence of several decades. New installments of the advice column will appear Mondays on the Bintel Blog. We are delighted to kick off the return of this legendary Forward feature with the legendary Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Dear Dr. Ruth, I…
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Books The American Jewish Inexperience?
Sholom Aleichem, Bintel Blog readers. (Your turn: Aleichem, Sholom). I’m currently on tour promoting “A Living Lens: Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of the Forward”, so my posting will be spotty for a little while. But here’s something that could keep you busy for some time. In the latest issue of The Nation,…
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In the Beginning…
In the beginning, there was the Bintel Brief, the Forward’s legendary advice column. Launched in 1906 by Forward editor Abraham Cahan, the Bintel Brief — literally a “Bundle of Letters” — helped waves of Yiddish-speaking immigrants find their footing in 20th-century American life. But the Bintel Brief was more than just an advice column. It…
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