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Culture How Jewish TikTokers are trying to reclaim an antisemitic trend
“If I Were a Rich Man” is one of the most iconic songs from “Fiddler on the Roof.” In it, Tevye, borrowing from niggunim, a wordless Jewish meditative tune, dreams of a better life outside the shtetl. Unfortunately, the beloved song has been turned into a flourishing antisemitic trend on TikTok, spawning more than 25,000…
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News Is Clubhouse equipped to handle hate speech and antisemitism?
Two weeks after this piece was published, a flare-up of antisemitic incidents on Clubhouse led the social networking app to announce publicly they had “shut down a number of rooms found to be in violation” of their policies. Those rooms, which were eventually shut down, amassed hundreds of listeners and reportedly included statements about “how…
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Culture If you’re looking for a Passover anthem, this is…not it
If you haven’t heard of Trisha Paytas, I recommend you stop reading here and continue on in blissful ignorance. If you follow the ever-controversial Youtube-TikTok-social media figure, you will be unsurprised by her new music video release. Titled “I Love You Moses,” it is part Passover banger and part love song to her Israeli fiancé,…
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News Meet the rabbinic breakout star on the Clubhouse app
In the pre-pandemic era, rabbis would worry about finding a matching tie or an appropriate outfit before rushing out of the door to the next class they were teaching. These preparations were shelved during the pandemic as Zoom calls took the place of in-person gatherings and interactions, but they came with new logistical headaches: proper…
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Culture Why the new matzah emoji is not kosher for Passover
When you’re typing on an iPhone, the autofill interface tries to guess the next word you mean to type, or finish the word you’re currently typing. This is also how it suggest emojis — type in “fire,” and the flame emoji will pop up, which is very helpful given that there are 3,521 emojis to…
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Culture Why Hamantashen are the most divisive cookies in the world
Hamantashen are divisive cookies. Named after the Purim story’s villain, Haman, the triangle confections are supposed to resemble either his hat or his ears, depending who you ask — and many consider the often dry and crumbly cookie about as appetizing. Defending their honor is even part of the famed Latke-Hamantash Debate. (The Forward staff…
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Culture Facing corruption charges, Bibi turns to TikTok
Bibi Netanyahu is on TikTok. There are videos of him throwing a snowball into the camera to celebrate Jerusalem’s snowy conditions, or urging Israelis to get vaccinated, though they don’t seem to have caught on too well — while, as an international leader, he has managed to get verified, he only has 217.4K followers, far…
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Culture This 25-year-old Ashkenazi-British-Sudanese comedian is blowing up on TikTok
Lukas Arnold talks about his life all the time; it’s central to the comedy that has earned him 1.1 million followers on TikTok. And yet, the more he talks about himself, the more of an enigma he becomes. The 25-year-old comedian and voice actor’s dad is Ashkenazi, with ancestry in Poland. His mom is half…
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