Digest: Should Kagan Join JDate? Is Sarah Palin a Feminist?
Sisterhood Digest:
• Maureen Dowd, writing that Elena Kagan “as resigned herself to a cloistered, asexual existence,” suggests that the nominee for the Supreme Court join JDate.
• Australia says no to a burqa ban. Read our recent Sisterhood post on recent efforts to ban the veil.
• The online Jewish women’s magazine 614 is out with a new issue all about the Jewish psyche. It features pieces about psychoanalysis’ Jewish roots, a social worker who combines handwriting analysis with Jewish mysticism, and what Jewish women talk about with their therapists.
• Over at Tablet, Adam Kirsch reviews the new English translation of “The Life of Irène Némirovsky,” a biography of the Russian-French “Suite Française” author whose conversion to Catholicism didn’t save her from being sent to — and killed at — Auschwitz.
• Jewish Woman magazine profiles Jewish mothers of special needs children who have become activists for the rights of the disabled.
• Is Bethanny Frankel of “Real Housewives” fame Jewish? During a recent televised interview, she answered that question like this: “No, I don’t consider myself Jewish. My dad was Jewish and my mom converted … but I don’t think of myself as Jewish.” Her response is rubbing some people the wrong way.
• Sarah Palin is no longer shying away the word “feminism”, And Meghan Daum, writing in the Los Angeles Times, says that if Palin “has the guts to call herself a feminist, then she’s entitled to be accepted as one.” But Taylor Marsh, on the Huffington Post says Palin isn’t worthy of the title: “Anything less than supporting women’s full individual rights simply renders you a pretender, a fake, a feminist fraud.” Watch Palin drop the F-bomb here.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
