Anne Cohen December 19, 2013

We’ve got all the Jewish names that lit up 2013, for better or worse — and everything in between.

There’s Titi Aynaw, the trailblazing first black Miss Israel who parlayed her pageant win into a “dream date” with President Barack Obama.

You might not recognize Jake Davidson’s name but the day school kid from Los Angeles showed serious chutzpah by creating a YouTube video asking curvy supermodel Kate Upton to his prom.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

James Deen was already a household name (in some households, at least). The nicest Jewish boy in porn made a play for mainstream success.

Mia Farrow’s son, Ronan Farrow, made headlines when he scored an MSNBC talk show gig. Even more intriguing was his mom’s revelation that Woody Allen might not be his real dad.

Fashion bad boy John Galliano tried and failed to make amends for his anti-Semitic past. And the royal baby Prince George — well, we found a Jewish angle on him, too.

What happens in Vegas is supposed to stay there, but Sam Horowitz changed all that. The kid made national headlines with his glitzy bar mitzvah on the Strip.

Mila Kunis showed us just how sexy Jewish can be, while Sarah Silverman stuck with the faith, even though she wore a crucifix.

A dude named Ari Mandel nearly made $100,000 selling a Jewish slice of heaven on eBay.

A Jewish congressman thought a bikini model was his long-lost love child. The truth turned out to be a little less dramatic.

Anthony Weiner’s comeback burned out amid more lurid revelations about sexting — and the profoundly un-Jewish screen name of Carlos Danger.

And Justin Bieber took some heat for suggesting Anne Frank would’ve been a fan. What’s wrong with that?

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount