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
-
The Schmooze Why ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ Is Every Jewish Family Ever
For the better part of a decade, my family’s Thanksgiving morning ritual began with someone popping our worn-out “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” DVD into the DVD player. The movie looped throughout the day as we cooked, with the bickering of Maria Portokalos and Aunt Voula mimicking the sounds of my mom and aunts as…
-
News Why Tajikistan’s Last Jews Are Staying Put Despite Waves of Change
The secret synagogue of Tajikistan is not hard to find once you know where to look. Like much in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s small and humdrum capital, the building is on a street whose name no one uses and where few strangers venture. From the outside it could be just another upscale house with a lush courtyard,…
-
News Defying Stereotypes, Jewish Life in the South Is Flourishing
When Courtney Ferriter arrived six years ago in the predominantly Protestant community of Auburn, Alabama, she needed a place where she felt like she belonged. “You feel like you’re a bit of an outsider, so the natural inclination is, you want to go find your people,” Ferriter said. Ferriter, a graduate student at Auburn University,…
-
The Schmooze Google Doodle Celebrates Hollywood Vamp Hedy Lamarr
Nazis, sex, groundbreaking inventions, escape in disguise — sounds like the plot for the next Hollywood hit. Or, you know, real events from Hedy Lamarr’s life. The Jewish actress and inventor, who would have turned 101 on November 9, is the . Born Hedwwig Eva Maria Kiesler to bourgeois Jewish parents in Vienna, Lamarr’s film debut…
-
Culture Your Jewish Nose Job Stories
In , published in the Forward last month, Naomi Zeveloff described the evolution of the procedure once considered a rite of passage for Jewish American teenage girls. **In the 1950s and ’60s, nose jobs were seen as a way to fit in. For the price of minor surgery, you could erase the main visible trace…
-
The Schmooze Kenny G Is China’s Favorite Jew
Can the liquid velvet sounds of Kenny G halt an impending conflict between China and the United States? John Oliver thinks so. On Sunday night, the “Last Week Tonight” host described increasing tensions between China and the U.S. over the former’s efforts to claim a disputed region near Vietnam in the South China Sea. Enter…
-
News When Reform Leaders Downplay Charges of Rabbis Behaving Badly
Rabbi Eric Siroka was quietly expelled from the nation’s leading association for Reform rabbis, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, this past spring. At the time, the CCAR said only that Siroka had been expelled for refusing to comply with an ethics investigation. By then, Siroka, a married father with two children, had moved to…
-
Culture How Ruth Bader Ginsburg Became ‘Notorious’
What do a deceased East Coast rapper and a petite Jewish Supreme Court justice have in common? They’re both Notorious. Over the past few years, Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been enjoying an unlikely pop culture moment. “Notorious RBG,” the Tumblr account created by NYU law student Shana Knizhnik comparing Ginsburg to rapper Biggie Smalls (aka…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point
- 2
News They texted about Torah and mitzvahs. Feds say they were insider trading
- 3
Culture At Eurovision, Israel’s near triumph shows the limits of tolerance
- 4
Opinion I run The Jewish Theological Seminary. Here’s the real story about President Isaac Herzog speaking at our commencement
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish ייִדן פֿלעגן באַשווערן רוחות און שלאַנגען אויף ווײַסרוסישJews used to conjure spirits and snakes in Belarusian
בײַ ייִדן איז פֿאַראַן אַן אַלטע טראַדיציע צו שרײַבן רײַסישע סגולות מיט ייִדישע אותיות.
-
Fast Forward Anti-Israel Republican Thomas Massie ousted from Congress as Trump endorsee wins primary
-
Fast Forward Jewish groups rally behind bipartisan Senate antisemitism bill with $1B security allocation
-
Fast Forward With AOC backing and anti-Israel message, Chris Rabb vies for open House seat in Philadelphia