Forward.com

Bridging Brooklyn’s Jewish DivideOccasionally, I walk out of my present apartment and come face to face with my past. She’s wearing a long skirt and an I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-natural wig. If she’s a childhood friend, we probably chat politely about her kids and my job as a journalist. If I’m wearing pants, she’ll try not to look down (even if her…Read more

SportsPittsburgh may have been roundly beaten in a season-ending game of college basketball last week, but in the more hidebound world of Jewish organizational life, the city scored a stunning victory.Howard Rieger, 61, a longtime Jewish charity leader and top professional at the United Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, has been nominated…Read more

Groups Say Ban on Gay Vows Breaches Religious FreedomIn an unusual move, a local prosecutor’s effort to stop ministers from performing same-sex marriages is drawing fire from Jewish civil rights agencies not only on grounds of privacy or gay rights, but also of religious freedom.Officials with the American Jewish Congress and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism charge that the district…Read more

Activist Rabbi Group Ramps Up EffortsRabbis for Human Rights, a multi-denominational international group, is ramping up efforts to clear its Israeli executive director of charges for attempting to block the demolition of Palestinian homes.The group is running an advertising campaign in North American Jewish newspapers calling on Israel to rescind its “illegal and immoral”…Read more

Reform Rabbis Seek To Revive Food LawsMore than a century after the founders of Reform Judaism rejected kosher dietary laws as outdated practices likely to “obstruct” modern spiritual development, a growing cadre of the movement’s religious leaders are seeking to revive the practice.Discussion about resurrecting the observance of kosher laws, or kashrut, dominated the latest…Read more