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Tapping Into Growing Lure of Hidden Jewish Heritage Online
Catherine Afarian calls herself a “love child of the ‘70s.” Her mother discovered that she was pregnant after she had broken off a relationship of less than a year. Afarian has never met her biological father, but her mother always said he came from a big Italian family, and Afarian got a kick out of…
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As First Maharats Graduate, Roles for Orthodox Women Take Leap Forward
Sunday’s inaugural graduation at Yeshivat Maharat was no ordinary cap and gown ceremony. Rather, it was history in the making for Orthodox women. As Ruth Balinsky Friedman, Rachel Kohl Finegold and Abby Brown Scheier prepared to become the first women to hold the title maharat in the Jewish community, faculty members of the school and…
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Unlikely Radicals Take Aim at Corporate Jewish Burial Business
The annual meeting of the Jewish death care radicals is no place for a funeral director. That became clear just after lunch on the second full day of the North American Chevra Kadisha and Jewish Cemetery Conference, when an attorney named Efrem Grail unloaded on the coffin hawkers. “This is about a protected profession which…
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Jewish Fathers in Just Six Words
What’s the essence of the Jewish father? This was the question the Forward posed to you in a contest to write six-word tributes to your fathers and grandfathers for Father’s Day. Six words may not seem like much to work with for a people with so much to say. And there are few topics that…
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Help for Needy Holocaust Survivors In Doubt as Donor Conference Scrapped
When 47 countries affirmed a 2009 declaration pledging to address the needs of the world’s poorest Holocaust survivors, it was seen as a solemn commitment that promised concrete measures to come. But four years on, organizers have postponed the first international conference in which the participant countries were to discuss how best to meet their…
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Offering a Lifeline for Growing Number of Jewish Hungry and Poor
This story first appeared in the Yiddish Forverts. It was translated into English by Frimet Goldberger. According to a study by the UJA Federation of New York, the poverty rate of the greater New York Jewish population grew exponentially as of late. More than 560,000 people — 20% of all the Jewish households in the…
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Radicals Against the Death Care Industry; Hasidic Anti-Zionist Rally; Six Words About Your Dad
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward news editor Larry Cohler-Esses to discuss a recent gathering of Jewish activists who want to take back funerals from the death care industry. Then, Forward intern Frimet Goldberger drops by to discuss a massive rally organized by the Satmar Hasidic sect in…
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German Parliament Passes Anti-Semitism Measure
The German Bundestag today approved a resolution vowing to combat anti-Semitism and support Jewish life in Germany, and to deepen the country’s special relationship with Israel. The resolution, which passed by an overwhelming margin in a voice vote during a poorly attended session, signaled the government’s recognition of anti-Semitism’s continued existence in the country responsible…
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Jewish Women Declare Victory on Supreme Court BRCA Gene Mutation Case
Joanna Rudnick, a breast cancer survivor and BRCA-1 gene carrier, turned 39 today — and got one heck of a birthday present. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that human genes cannot be patented, although it reiterated that synthetic or altered genes may be subject to patent law. In other words, human DNA cannot be patented…
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Did Satmars Bite Hand That Feeds Them With Anti-Israel Message at Draft Rally?
If you needed social services from New York’s fervently pro-Israel mainstream Jewish community, would you organize a tremendous anti-Israel rally in its backyard? Despite assurances that it wasn’t their intention to do so, that appears to be exactly what the Satmar Hasidic community did on June 9, when they gathered a reported 30,000 men in…
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Conservative Umbrella Group Lays Off 12 Staffers as Fiscal Woes Bite
The Conservative movement’s umbrella group, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, has laid off a total of 12 full-time and part-time employees, the Forward has learned. Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of the USCJ, said the reductions, about 10% of the staff, would save the organization about $1 million annually — about the size of its…
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Yiddish רבנישע כּתבֿים ווײַזן אומגעריכטע פֿאַרבינדונגען צווישן ייִדיש און לאַדינאָRabbinical texts reveal surprising links between Yiddish and Ladino
לויט אַ נײַ בוך פֿאָרשונגען האָבן טראַדיציאָנאַליסטן אין ביידע עדות געהאַלטן, אַז ייִדן מוזן אָפּהיטן זייער גערעדט לשון
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