Though the #metoo campaign has brought renewed attention to sexual harassment and assault against women, we often overlook the degree to which women in low-wage jobs are particularly at risk. The women who pick the food we eat every day, for example, have for decades experienced an epidemic of gender-based violence in the fields. According…
On November 20, JTA published a piece highlighting an Israeli research group’s findings that burning the excrement produced by turkey and other poultry could be a “greener” alternative to coal power. But burning poultry excrement to combat climate change is a load of chicken poop. To fight climate change and protect our environment, we have…
As soon as George Washington proclaimed the first Thanksgiving holiday in 1789, some American Jews embraced the tradition right away. Gershom Mendes Seixas, considered by some to be American Judaism’s first public figure, was only 23 years old when he was appointed in 1768 as the cantor of New York’s Congregation Shearith Israel (at the…
This year, some Jewish leaders are applying the Passover Seder model to the Thanksgiving dinner. Joy Levitt (executive director of the JCC of Manhattan) has compiled a Haggadah for her family Thanksgiving meal — replete with her own set of Four Questions. Her Haggadah features patriotic songs (“This Land Is Your Land, This Land Is…
Thanksgiving and Black Friday come every year, in good economic times and bad. Forward editor-in-chief Jane Eisner explained in 2011 why Americans should not be cajoled into working on a day that’s supposed to be all about family. Macy’s flagship store in New York’s Herald Square and the more than 800 branches around the country…
Here’s a fun fact for the Thanksgiving dinner table: Saving the planet could come down to turkey droppings. Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev published a study determining that poultry excrement could be effectively converted to biofuels and replace approximately 10 percent of coal used in electricity — providing an alternative energy and reducing…
The following story, posted a year ago today, is as relevant now as it was then. As you’ve doubtless heard, the citizens of these (decreasingly) United States of America are freaking out about Thanksgiving this year, worried they’ll find themselves trapped at the table with relatives whose political points of view are painfully opposite their…
When I was in college, living over 1,000 miles away, nothing made me feel closer to home than attending one of the weekly Shabbat dinners hosted by the Jewish organizations on campus. Every week I would meet someone new, and because we had broken bread (or challah) there was an instant bond between us. Related…
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