When philanthropist Barbara Dobkin founded Ma’yan in 1993, her goal was to foster the women’s movement within Jewish communities. Which is exactly what Ma’yan achieved: Based out of the JCC Manhattan, the organization published an influential feminist Passover Haggadah; helped launch the Ritualwell website — offering new resources for spiritual practice — and worked with…
In Texas, it may soon be required for women who have received an abortion to bury or cremate the fetal tissue. In Missouri, Gov. Eric Greitens is seeking to overturn a recently passed St. Louis ordinance that bans employers and landlords from discriminating against women who have had an abortion, used contraceptives or are pregnant….
Stephanie Goldfarb is a social worker at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and also the winner of “America’s Best Cook” on the Food Network and proprietor of Seven Species Supper Club, a bimonthly dinner at her home in Edgewater. As a member of both Chicago’s Jewish and LGBTQ communities, she was upset by the…
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban long proclaimed zero tolerance of anti-Semitism but has more recently risked angering Israel and Jewish people with remarks apparently courting radical right-wing voters ahead of 2018 elections. Orban’s language, embracing notions of “ethnic homogeneity,” appears fashioned to occupy territory on the far right abandoned by the radical nationalist opposition party…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Livraria Ets Haim is the world’s oldest functioning Jewish library. As such, it is no stranger to the prospect of imminent destruction. Founded in 1616 by Jews who fled Catholic persecution in Spain and Portugal, the three-room library is adjacent to Amsterdam’s majestic Portuguese Synagogue in the Dutch capital’s center. The 30,000-volume collection…
There are a few things that everyone can agree on about what transpired at the Chicago Dyke March last Saturday. Somewhere along the two-mile parade route through the Little Village neighborhood, a discussion began between a group of queer Palestinians and three Jewish women carrying rainbow flags with blue Stars of David in the middle…
The numbers in the public benefits fraud scam in the Orthodox enclave of Lakewood, New Jersey, are stunning. Fourteen arrests so far, and counting. More than $2 million in fraudulently obtained government funds. Hundreds of others scrambling to avoid prosecution for similar crimes. Law enforcement sources say that the schemes are both “widespread” and some…
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the iconic Manhattan LGBTQ synagogue, instructed marchers joining it June 25 in the New York Pride Parade to avoid wearing clothing or carrying signs relating to the Jewish state or the Palestinians, the Forward has learned. A CBST rabbi asked in an email for the groups to ensure that their marchers…
Budapest authorities moved on Wednesday to shutter the Aurora Cafe, which has served as a gathering spot for Hungarian opposition activists and nongovernmental human rights advocates. Authorities cited illegal drugs, but management said the government’s real aim is to muzzle opposition voices. In America, “the Resistance,” as some call the activist opposition to President Trump,…
Theater critic Hedy Weiss has done it again. Weiss, who’s been reviewing plays and dance performances for the Chicago Sun-Times since 1984, is an old hand at provoking outrage within the city’s arts community, largely by inserting controversial political opinions —to put it gently — into her reviews. In the past, Weiss has suggested racial…
Larry and Toby Milstein, two rising young Jewish socialites, held a séance in Leonard Bernstein’s former apartment, attempting to summon the spirit of the deceased composer, according to The New York Times. The ghostly communication took place at The Dakota, the Central Park West building perhaps most famous for being the site of John Lennon’s…
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