By Laura Sinberg
Charity fundraisers in major cities across the country are quickly becoming an increasingly popular way for young Jewish singles — tired of the bar scene and JDate — to meet potential dates and help causes close to their hearts, all in one shot.Read More
By Paul Golin
Move over Jewish day schools. There’s a new intermarriage panacea in town, and its name is Birthright Israel.Read More
By Leah Koenig
Leah Koenig and her fiancé became matchmakers at their own wedding when they paired a farmer with a caterer in their quest to serve food that was both kosher and green. Koening discusses the relative dearth of organic kosher food — and the few options available — in this article from our archives.
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By Allison Gaudet Yarrow
Initially ambivalent about returning to her native South to get married, Allison Gaudet Yarrow recounts the complicated and often humorous task of orchestrating the big Southern Jewish wedding her mother always dreamed of, and learns to see the beauty in the strangeness.
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By Allison Gaudet Yarrow
As an undergraduate studying abroad in Israel, Amy Beth Oppenheimer didn’t write a thesis paper — she made a documentary about the hot topic of marriage instead. The Forward speaks with the young documentarian about the controversies she explores in her film.
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By Linda Kriger
Linda Kriger discusses the challenges and triumphs of making a blended family into a unified family. Learn how she gets her eldest step-daughter to look her in the eye, in this personal essay.
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By Matthue Roth
Leanne Lieberman, the author of the definitive novel on Teenage Orthodox Lesbians (there’s little competition) is, surprisingly, neither Orthodox nor gay herself. This book review takes a look at Lieberman’s debut novel and examines the places where her character’s path converges and diverges from her own.
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By Ruth Abusch-Magder
God speaks to Jewish women as well as to Jewish men. God loves Jewish women as well as God loves Jewish men. From biblical times to the present, there have been prayers that speak to this love, answer this call and voice concerns of their own, but not usually in mainstream liturgy. Usually uttered outside the synagogue, and often hidden from public view, these prayers speak to the inner desires and struggles of Jewish women.Read More
By Joshua Cohen
We would do well to remember that when we say “according to the rabbis,” we are historically saying “according to men.”
According to the male rabbis who wrote the Talmud and who, for European generations, were the sole interpreters of the law of the Torah, only one of their own can grant a divorce: Under the laws of Judaism, women, wives, are not allowed to divorce without the explicit consent of their husbands. That consent comes only in the form of a writ of divorce, called, in Hebrew, a get. If a woman is abandoned by her husband but not given a get, and she cannot prove that her husband is dead (in which case the marriage is annulled), she is called an aguna — literally, a “bound” or “chained” woman. She cannot get remarried. If she does get remarried, any issuing children would be considered bastards, and their line would be tainted (those same rabbis tell us) for 10 generations.
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By Philologos
Often, words and expressions change meaning by happenstance, or because a secondary meaning gradually becomes a primary one. There’s no wider significance to it. Sometimes, though, the change is indicative of a real cultural shift.Read More
