Welcome to the Forward’s insightful posts and articles covering all things Jewish, from culture and traditions to history, faith and contemporary Jewish life.
Jewish
The Latest
-
News A Small-Town Jewish Family’s Rebuke of Car Maker Henry Ford
What possessed a small-town Jewish immigrant family to defy the demands of the anti-Semitic corporate owner of their car dealership franchise? And not just any corporate owner, but Henry Ford Sr. In 1916, my grandfather, Max Barish, along with his brothers and father, opened a Ford dealership in Sioux City, Iowa. The business provided them…
-
Opinion Blood-Libel Trial of Mendel Beilis Reverberates a Century Later
One hundred years ago, czarist Russia was convulsed by the “Beilis Affair” — the trial of my grandfather, Mendel Beilis, on charges that he ritually murdered a Christian child and used his blood to make matzo for Passover. Beilis was arrested in Kiev by the czarist secret police and imprisoned for more than two years,…
-
Opinion Now They Come for the Gays
The Jewish community should feel a sense of déjà vu as it witnesses the government-sponsored persecution of LGBT people in Russia. We should respond with a statement of determination nearly as familiar to us as the Shema: Never again. In the 1960s, with our awareness of the Holocaust very fresh in our memory, American Jews…
-
Life The Jewish World’s Pay Gap
One of the most important components of the Forward’s annual Salary Survey — in which we research and publish compensation figures for the leaders of American Jewish organizations — is looking at gender disparity. In fact, as Jane Eisner, our editor-in-chief wrote in the Washington Post today, she got the idea for the survey after…
-
News Reform Movement Seeks New Direction Amid Concerns
(JTA) — What do you get when you bring together 5,000 of the Reform movement’s faithful for a conference in sunny San Diego in mid-December? Four days of singing, learning, schmoozing and worrying at a gathering that seemed equal parts pep rally and intervention session. For pep, there were the spirited prayer services, the morning-till-night…
-
Life Gay Surrogacy Gets a Boost in Israel
Back in 2011, I wrote about a ruling by Israel’s High Court of Justice that allowed couples that already had several children to apply to have an additional child by surrogacy. Until the ruling, preference had always been given to childless couples by Israel’s surrogacy approval committee overseeing applications and protocols. I wondered whether this…
-
The Schmooze KISS Makes Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 2014
Get ready to rock and roll all night and party every day — or at least save the date for April 10. KISS will be among the class of 2014 inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Jewish boys of glam rock will be honored along side Nirvana, Peter Gabriel, Hall and…
-
Fast Forward Damaged Torahs Found by U.S. Troops in Iraq Are Buried in New York
Damaged Torah scrolls found by U.S. troops in Iraq’s intelligence headquarters were buried in a cemetery in New York. The burial, the method under Jewish law of disposing of unusable religious objects and texts, took place Sunday at the New Montefiore Cemetery in West Babylon, Long Island, the Associated Press reported. More than 100 people…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
- 2
Sports This year’s biggest World Cup upset came from its most ‘Jew-ish’ team
- 3
Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
- 4
News Who is Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli politician who could dethrone Netanyahu?
In Case You Missed It
-
Music Everyone was a fan of Clive Davis — even if they didn’t know it
-
Fast Forward U.S. and Iran announce direct Lebanon track without Israel
-
Fast Forward Years after a boycott fight, Ben & Jerry’s Israel debuts a flavor celebrating Israeli resilience
-
Fast Forward Mamdani calls AIPAC ‘monsters’ in rally ahead of NY primaries