
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
It wasn’t just that Chef Yael Peet’s lovingly rendered Japanese food at Karasu felt so personal, or that Peet managed to bring a fresh point of view to a cuisine that’s so often rendered as cliché. It’s also that every dish brought a surprise, whether it was lotus in Peet’s hijiki salad, mentaiko cod roe in her homemade pasta, or shiso pesto on her whole fish. And Peet accomplishes it all from a thimble-sized kitchen in a speakeasy space behind a Brooklyn bistro. Karasu itself feels like a find, and Peet — one of the world’s few Jewish women sushi chefs — gets my vote for most exciting and promising chef of the year.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
