It should have been a relaxing summer lunch with my maternal first cousins and their spouses, but instead, my mind was racing. I needed to ask a question that had been on my mind for months and I could not wait any longer. Pushing aside my plate, I spoke. “I took an Ancestry DNA test…
When quarantine first began, back when some of us naively thought it would truly just be two weeks long, Twitter predicted a baby boom; so many couples were off work, locked in with each other and little to do. That, it turns out, was wrong; a study from the Brookings Institution predicts a long-lasting baby…
Click to hear this article read aloud. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us many challenges. But ironically, it’s also helped make 2020 a great year for learning Yiddish. The annual YIVO Yiddish summer program had so many registrants this summer — 60% more than last year — that administrators had to scramble to schedule more…
A 104-year-old Holocaust survivor wanted to celebrate her birthday by praying with her descendants at the Western Wall — and 400 people showed up, leading to a massively viral photo, the Algemeiner reported. For her 104th birthday, Shoshana Ovitz had initially asked her eldest granddaughter, Panini Friedman for “a list of all the grandchildren and…
(JTA) — A Jewish family from the United Kingdom complained to police about a young man who was filmed hurling an object in their direction and calling them “dirty Jews” on a London street after shoving their baby stroller. The incident Sunday, which police are treating as a hate crime, escalated after the man pushed…
We’ve forgotten a great deal of age-old wisdoms over the years, but here’s a reminder about a rule most of us grew up with: Religion and politics have no place at the dinner table. In my family, either topic might have been a welcome distraction from fighting about everything else in our lives; politics and…
My husband and I have an annual tradition. Each year, the night before Kol Nidre, we throw on some sequins and watch The Jazz Singer starring Neil Diamond. It’s a ritual as important to us as bagels & lox for break-fast. This past Erev Kol Nidre, just as I was getting ready for the movie,…
Earlier this year, the Forverts asked readers to submit anecdotes and photos of their favorite heirlooms. Heirlooms are not only a way of keeping us connected to our past; they are also a wonderful way to transmit family history to our children and grandchildren The response to our search was an enthusiastic one and 22…
100% of profits support our journalism
