Whether it’s a bris, bat mitzvah or a shiva, there’s a ceremony for every aspect of Jewish life — and death. But when it comes time to observe these moments for the first time, the anxiety that sometimes surfaces can be unnerving. Sitting shiva, the traditional week-long mourning period following a funeral, is no different….
This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. They met at Tamiment, a hotel for singles in the Poconos, on Memorial Day weekend, 1953. He was an orthodontist, bringing a roommate from dental…
National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and celebrates the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Staffers of Be’chol Lashon asked their colleague Julian Voloj, who was born in Germany of parents from Colombia, about the history…
Rabbi Marc Baker, the newish head of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, seemed to be everywhere this summer. At a vigil in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood, denouncing the stabbing of a Chabad rabbi. At a media event for the New England Holocaust Memorial, with the governor of Massachusetts and mayor of Boston. At a downtown…
He’s the bassist for a Jewish spiritual community, an inventor of cutting edge technologies for the blind and now: a MacArthur Genius. This week, the MacArthur Foundation announced Joshua A. Miele as a 2021 fellow. The fellowships, commonly called the “Genius Awards,” come with $625,000 over five years, with no strings attached, and are given…
The rabbi’s email had an arresting subject line: “Emergency Tehillim Needed.” Why the urgent call for prayers? Had a congregant fallen ill? An Israeli soldier gone missing? A once-per-decade shift in the lines separating city districts was probably not what congregants were expecting. But the Los Angeles City Council district map was soon to be…
Journalist Nemi El-Hassan brought cameras inside a neo-Nazi concert in 2017, exposing the gathering to millions of Germans as she challenged the organizers over merchandise that extolled Hitler and ties to the far-right Alternative for Germany party. “El-Hassan is a confident, hijab-wearing Muslim woman, even when at a right-wing rock concert in Themar surrounded by…
There’s a limit to what any one person can accomplish in her time on earth. Marcia Freedman managed to blow right past the limit and just kept going. Pioneering feminist, LGBTQ activist, Knesset member, author and co-founder of an esteemed Middle East peace organization, Marcia Freedman died Sept. 21 in Berkeley. She was 83. “She…
Jeremy Cowan, who launched He’Brew beer in San Francisco in 1996, has decided to close the spigot on the brand that brought high quality craft beer—and innumerable Jewish puns— to weddings, bar mitzvahs and liquor stores around the country. Cowan has been the face of He’Brew and its Shmaltz Brewing Company – the only identifiably…
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett praised the American Jewish community Monday in an address to its leaders in New York. He admired its acceptance of denominations across the spectrum of Judaism. He extolled its support for Israel. And he stressed the need to strengthen the relationship between Israel and Jews in the diaspora. “For me,…
Lawyers for an Israeli grocery start up claim that Amazon’s lawyers used antisemitic language to sway a Texas jury against their client. “Defendants blew this Jewish stereotype ‘dog whistle’ at every opportunity to unfairly bias the jury,” wrote attorney Lisa Kobialka on behalf of client Freshub and its Jewish chief executive officer, Meir “Iri” Zohar….
לעסלי טורנער האָט אָנגעשריבן און אויפֿגעפֿירט אַ ליאַלקע־שפּיל אין איר ייִדיש־קלאַס בײַם טאָראָנטאָ־אוניווערסיטעט
100% of profits support our journalism
