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The Schmooze Jew Bot Eugene Goostman Is Kind of a Perv
Eugene Goostman is a computer program masquerading as a 13-year-old Ukrainian Jewish boy. On June 7, he became the first program — and certainly the first Jewish program — to pass the iconic Turing test of artificial intelligence, after convincing several judges that he is, in fact, human. The Forward’s Hody Nemes sat down with…
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Life To My Husband on Father’s Day
Dear Paul, Before I asked you to be with me forever, on that rock in that river, I considered whether or not you’d be a good father. I felt pretty sure then, six years before Oliver, that you would be. But you don’t really know until that baby comes. And you really don’t know until…
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The Schmooze Taye Diggs Opens Up About Idina Menzel Divorce
Taye Diggs has taken ex-wife Idina Menzel’s “Frozen” advice and “Let It Go.” In an interview with Redbook, the Broadway actor opens up about the couple’s decision to divorce back in December. I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times when I thought, Oh, man, people are going to trip out [if we split]….
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Fast Forward 2 Jewish Teens Wearing Kippahs Tear-Gassed in Paris Suburb
Two Jewish teenagers reported that they were sprayed with tear gas in an attack in Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Paris. The teens, who were wearing kippot, said they were attacked on Saturday night, according to a report posted Monday on the website of the National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA. The attack,…
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The Schmooze ‘Fiddler’ Lyricist Sheldon Harnick Turns 90
“The sad thing is that Joe Stein and Jerry Bock can’t be part of this celebration,” mused lyricist Sheldon Harnick at his 90th birthday bash hosted on June 2 by Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a principal of Bernstein Global Management at its New York City headquarters. It was Stein who wrote the book, and Bock who wrote…
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Opinion Time for Jewish Evangelizing
If we’re serious about renewing Jewish life in the future, we must confront the challenge of evangelizing for Jewish tradition in public space. One of the reasons that the tension between the tribal and the universal in Jewish life isn’t addressed directly is because most Jews lack confidence in their knowledge of Jewish tradition to…
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Culture ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Turns 50 With an All-Star Celebration
Zalmen Mlotek, artistic director of the National Yiddish Theatre (aka Folksbiene) doesn’t seem too surprised — indeed, he sounds matter-of-fact — that the iconic theater is marking its 100th birthday and still going strong. But, he acknowledges its founders, who opened the theater’s doors on the Lower East Side for Yiddish speaking Eastern European immigrants, would…
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Opinion Why Bother Converting to ‘Cat GIF’ Judaism?
Grumpy Cat In her recent editorial, Jane Eisner confronts what she views as the problems with Judaism’s current conversion process — and conversion’s potential usefulness in “sustaining the future” of the Jewish people. When we speak of the modern conversion process, it’s important to separate social practices from religious mandate. Many of the issues that…
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Culture Why do Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas?
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Vance says ‘religious liberty is a Christian concept.’ Where does that leave Jews?
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News Ben Shapiro is mounting a last stand against right-wing antisemitism. It’s not going well.
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion What if Donald Trump puts his name on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum?
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Fast Forward Israel becomes first country to recognize Somaliland, drawing condemnation from Egypt, Turkey and Somalia
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Opinion ‘Jesus is a Palestinian,’ claims a Times Square billboard. Um, not quite
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Fast Forward 82 years after his plane was shot down in China, Jewish WWII pilot Morton Sher is laid to rest at home
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