Elissa Strauss has written for the Forward over a number of years. She is a regular contributor to CNN, whose work has been published in a number of publications including The New York Times, Glamour, ELLE, and Longreads.
Elissa Strauss
By Elissa Strauss
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Opinion Confessions of a Disengaged Young Jew
I don’t have strong opinions about Israel. I can’t say whether the country’s risks justify the force it often employs, nor can I say whether its greatest threats come from within or without. It’s strange to begin a column by revealing one’s indifference on a topic. I know. Though what interests me isn’t what one…
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Life It’s Okay To Be Ambivalent About Woody Allen
On Saturday, Woody Allen’s adopted daughter Dylan Farrow published a letter in the New York Times in which she claims that her father sexually abused her at age seven. She calls upon Allen’s famous friends to not dismiss her story, and says that Allen is “a living testament to the way our society fails the…
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Life Sarah Silverman Ends ‘Are Women Funny?’ Debate
“Okay, last night I was visited by Jesus Christ, like the Jesus Christ. And he told me he was really bummed by all these people who use my name for intolerance and oppression.” And so begins Sarah Silverman’s latest viral video, in which Christ comes to Sarah’s living room to tell her that she has…
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Life ScarJo’s Other SodaStream Problem: The Sexist Ad
No matter where you stand on Israeli politics, it’s hard not to see Scarlett Johansson’s decision to become a spokesperson for SodaStream as a bold choice. Unfortunately, this boldness didn’t make its way into the commercial itself. Instead, the ad relies on the most cliche, ickily retro advertising tropes imaginable. If you are reading this…
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Life Untold Story of Jewish Feminist Pioneers
Historian Melissa R. Klapper recently won a National Jewish Book Award for “Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women’s Activism, 1890-1940.” In the book, Klapper, a professor of history at Rowan University in New Jersey, shows us that decades before Steinem and Friedan became households names, Jewish feminists were already working to make…
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Life Maybe You Shouldn’t Call that Baby Cute
I call babies cute. Most of the time it is because they are actually quite cute, and occasionally because it is the polite thing to say. Calling babies cute is second-nature for most of us. It is what the spit-up splattered parents want to hear, and in those pre-personality early months there is really nothing…
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Opinion Lena Dunham’s Photoshopped Vogue Cover Causes Storm, Should Have Caused Celebration
Lena Dunham’s appearance on the cover of Vogue could have been a cause for celebration. Long a domain for women whose principal achievements include having an impossibly symmetrical face and a wasp waist, the “Girls” creator is one of the first who was given the spot primarily because of what she’s got going on within….
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Life Having Kids Makes Some Parents More Productive
Hey working parents, I’ve got some good news for you. (Finally, I know.) Your kids might actually make you more productive. According to a new paper with the unwieldy title of “Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Grove of Academe,” mothers of at least two children are, on average, more professionally…
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