Arianna Huffington Wants YOU! (To Keep Shabbat)

Arianna Huffington Image by Getty Images
The Huffington Post casts a wide net: “Woman Effortlessly Annihilates Opponent In Cotton-Candy Eating Contest” is a headline you could read on the site today.
But Arianna Huffington, the founder of the site, which holds the remarkable distinction of being the most popular news website in the United States, is once again calling for readers to take a break from technology, and with it, news media. Why? Shabbat, of course.
“You do something very profound by asking people to disconnect from all the work and reconnect with something deeper,” Huffington, who is not Jewish, recently told Haaretz, adding that “everybody should be in favor of keeping the shabbat…not just religious people.” Shabbat, she said, is “a great gift.”
So will we hear Huffington waxing off about the her favorite shomer shabbas-friendly hot plates and kumkums? Not so fast. Huffington neither keeps Shabbat halachically nor does she do ritual candle lighting or other blessings. She just breaks from technology. She says, “When you honor the Shabbat you don’t say you shouldn’t do anything for seven days, you say that you need a break for one day.” According to Huffington, taking a break from technology helps her connect to it better during the rest of the week. Clever stuff.
But does Huffington, breaking from technology to return to it with full force during the rest of the week, celebrate shabbat by honoring God or herself? Does it matter?
One hopes that there’s a Huffington Post article on the subject.
Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny
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.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish קאָנצערט לכּבֿוד דעם ייִדישן שרײַבער און רעדאַקטאָר באָריס סאַנדלערConcert honoring Yiddish writer and editor Boris Sandler
דער בעל־שׂימחה האָט יאָרן לאַנג געדינט ווי דער רעדאַקטאָר פֿונעם ייִדישן פֿאָרווערטס.
-
Fast Forward Trump’s new pick for surgeon general blames the Nazis for pesticides on our food
-
Fast Forward Jewish feud over Trump escalates with open letter in The New York Times
-
Fast Forward First American pope, Leo XIV, studied under a leader in Jewish-Catholic relations
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.