This is the Forward’s coverage of Ashkenazi Jews, a major Jewish diasporic ethnic group native to Europe.
Ashkenazi Jews
The Latest
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News Should All Ashkenazi Women Get Tested for BRCA Gene Mutations?
No family history of cancer? Get tested anyway suggests a recently-published study, but medical experts are deeply divided. The study indicates that even Ashkenazi women with no family history of the disease but who test positive for a cancer-causing genetic mutation have high rates of breast and ovarian cancer. At the heart of the dispute…
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News Ashkenazi Jews Descend From 350 People, Scientists Say
Exploring Ashkenazi Jews And Their Origins
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Fast Forward New Study Recommends All Ashkenazi Women Be Screened for BRCA
All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends. The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published Friday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United…
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Food Don’t F— With My Knafeh!
Dan Peretz // Haaretz (Haaretz) — Danny Phillips’ knafeh place was supposed to satisfy practically every sector in this postmodern world of multiple identities and conflicts. There’s a menu based almost entirely on knafeh – one of the best loved of local foods – put together after extensive research, that gives pride of place to an…
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News Why Ashkenazi Jews Are Not Descended From Khazars — and What It Means
(Haaretz) — The claim that today’s Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars who converted in the Middle Ages is a myth, according to new research by a Hebrew University historian. The Khazar thesis gained global prominence when Prof. Shlomo Sand of Tel Aviv University published “The Invention of the Jewish People” in 2008. In that…
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News Why Kitniyot Passover Fight Is Literally Full of Beans
When is a legume not necessarily a legume? When it’s a min kitniyes, might be the Yiddish answer, which could be translated as, “When it’s a whatchamacallit.” And why is that? The week of Passover is a good time to ask. As the more ritually meticulous among you are aware, legumes — which is to…
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Fast Forward Angelina Jolie Breaks Silence About Breast Cancer Surgery and BRCA
Angelina Jolie has no regrets. The 38-year-old actress opened up for the first time about her decision to undergo a preventative mastectomy in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I’m great! I’m very happy I made the decision. I was very fortunate to have great doctors and very, very fortunate to have a good recovery and…
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Food Bubbe’s Kitchen Versus the Kiddush Hall
I recently conducted some research to explore how Jews define their own cultural identity through food. I analyzed interviews done in Europe -mainly in Germany- and in America -mainly Chile- and the results were somehow surprising. Both samples were very similar: mainly middle age, secular, and Ashkenazi women. Their answers were also relatively close in…
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Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
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Opinion The profound internal contradiction that could spell doom for Hillel
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Sports An op-ed compared an NBA team to Israel as underdog success stories. Then the threats poured in.
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Fast Forward Talarico won’t campaign with Democratic House candidate who wants to open ‘a prison for American Zionists’
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Art This Jewish artist hadn’t painted in more than 5 decades. Then came Oct. 7.
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Opinion How can I explain to my 93-year-old mother why it suddenly seems ok to hate Jews?
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Looking Forward The bizarre antisemitic book that taught me to better understand Judaism