For a section of the population, a bondage and domination film is an excuse to not only let its hair down, but take it off entirely. For Chani, a self-described “Ortho-fox,” the book and film (which she hasn’t at all, ever, chas v’shalom, ever read or seen or even really heard of) are confirmation that…
D’Angelo Converts?
As you enter the narrow doorway of Brooklyn’s Pearlstein + Dung, the first thing that greets you is the sparse shtetl décor and the pungent odor of artisanal cuisine. With furnishings based on drawings from a crumbling book in Slovakian synagogue basement, the shop is the brainchild of Ari and Zounette Pearlstein. Ari strokes his…
One of the hottest new trends in Europe is also one of the oldest — attacking Jews. And the energy driving this throwback can be traced to some of Europe’s newest residents, as Islamist immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East are taking up a tradition of their new home and making it their…
This exclusive interview took place the morning of February 3 at the gracious hacienda of Fidel Castro just outside Havana, overlooking the ocean. The idea was initiated by Castro through a signed letter hand-delivered to the offices of the Backward by an officer of the Cuban army. “In the spirit of friendship and brotherhood, I…
Rabbi Barry Freundel, who has pled guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism, has revealed that he was recruited as part of a government surveillance program called “MikiLeaks.” The program, run by the National Security Agency, targeted Jewish ritual baths, known as mikvehs, to collect evidence of individuals peeing in the mikveh. Freundel’s claims were backed…
1) To distract from the dripping tap. 2) So that mikveh dippers can time themselves to make sure they don’t take too long to get naked. 3) To make the changing room reassuringly haimish, like a bedroom. 4) Really? A practice dunk is totally normal but having a clock in there is the weird part?…
Joan Rivers, who died in September 2014, had her funeral all planned out in her autobiography. “I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action… I want craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene. I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t…
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