Irene Katz Connelly is a staff writer at the Forward. You can contact her at connelly@forward.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katz_conn.
Irene Katz Connelly
By Irene Katz Connelly
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News ‘A modern prophet:’ How rabbis reacted to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death
Addressing her congregation virtually on the first morning of Rosh Hashanah, Cantor Meredith Greenberg of Temple Ner Tamid, a Reform congregation in Bloomfield, N.J., sang the traditional blessing that precedes the reading of the haftarah. But what happened next was anything but traditional. Instead of chanting that week’s haftarah portion, Greenberg and the synagogue’s rabbi,…
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The Schmooze ‘High School Musical’ star Ashley Tisdale is pregnant
Ashley Tisdale has disobeyed her own erstwhile advice and shaken up the status quo: the “High School Musical” star, 35, is pregnant with her first child. Tisdale broke the news through the humble medium that scores of celebrities have been forced to adopt since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic: a simple Instagram post staged…
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Life 5781’s first trend: High Holiday care packages help Jews create shul at home
Amy Cohen knew the package was coming. Her synagogue, New York City’s B’nai Jeshurun, had told her to expect some materials to guide her through this year’s slate of virtual High Holiday offerings. Still, when a stylish linen tote bag bearing the synagogue’s logo arrived at her door, she was “moved to tears.” Inside was…
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The Schmooze Model Emily Ratajkowski accuses fashion photographer of sexual assault
Jewish model and actress Emily Ratajkowski accused fashion photographer Jonathan Leder of sexual assault in an searing essay for The Cut. Ratajkowski wrote that in 2012, she traveled to the photographer’s Catskills home as an unknown 20-year-old model to participate in a photoshoot for which “exposure,” not money, would be the compensation. After plying her…
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The Schmooze Netflix’s new space opera stars a Black Jewish botanist
America is launching its first mission to Mars — and there’s a chumash on the spaceship. This may sound like a Space Force PR stunt. In fact, it’s an extremely Jewish subplot of Netflix’s space soap opera “Away.” And that chumash (the Torah in printed, portable form) is the prized possession of one of its…
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Life Our High Holiday picks: What to watch, read, do while celebrating virtually
When the coronavirus pandemic scuppered all IRL events in March, I expected to feel bored for a few months. I did not expect to experience crippling shame over my inability to keep pace with the slate of virtual events that has sprung up to replace our actual social lives. If you’re anything like me, you’ve…
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The Schmooze Maternal wisdom replaces artificial intelligence in new Jewish dating app
In 2013, a millennial Jewish nightmare came true for Jeffrey Kaplan: he discovered his mother was posing as his younger brother on JDate in hopes of setting him up with a nice Jewish girl. That’s called catfishing, and it’s a fundamental no-no of the online dating world. But to Kaplan, an entrepreneur based in Asheville,…
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The Schmooze Influencer whose summer socializing sparked backlash contracts COVID
Summer is over, which means most of us can congratulate ourselves on slogging through the season without succumbing to the temptation of attending maskless Hamptons soirees. Not so for Jewish influencer Danielle Bernstein, who made headlines this week by testing positive for COVID-19 after a social spree in our modern-day East Egg. Here’s what you…
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