This post first appeared as “Jews Rank Highest on Well-Being Index” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. There’s a Yiddish saying, “It’s hard to be a Jew.” But according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, Jews enjoy the highest well-being of all religious groups. Read More »

This post was first published as “Keeping Gender News From Expectant Parents” on The Sisterhood blog at the Forward. When I was visiting Toronto recently, an editorial with the purposely provocative title, “‘It’s a girl!’ — could be a death sentence” by the editor-in-chief of Canada’s leading medical journal sparked a huge controversy. Read More »

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Natalie Portman is big everywhere in the world, including in Beirut, Lebanon, where she appears on a 50-foot billboard for Dior cosmetics. But not everyone is a fan. Algemeiner reports that anti-Israeli Lebanese bloggers are complaining about the actress’s image in their capital city. Read More »

This article was first published in “Sustained!,” the webzine of the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education. It is no secret that Jewish day schools have been the object of negative press. The enterprise, they say, is unsustainable. Tuition is too high, enrollment is too low. Read More »

This post first appeared as “New Diet Plan: Dessert for Breakfast” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Want to lose weight? Just eat dessert with your breakfast. You read that correctly: Treat yourself to some chocolate cake or ice cream in the morning and you are more likely to take off and keep off the pounds. Read More »

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. A full-bearded Matisyahu in 2010 Reggae star Matisyahu had two surprises in store for concert-goers who had come to see him perform at The Tarrytown Music Hall on February 16. The first was the re-growth of his beard. Read More »

My very first podcast! Here , you can listen to me commenting on fashion at the Forward’s Reporters Roundtable for the weekend of February 17. Read More »

This opinion piece was first published as “Tweets of Times’s New Jerusalem Bureau Chief” on the Forward Thinking blog at the Forward. Judi Rudoren Stop tweeting! That was the loud-and-clear message from Tablet’s Marc Tracy, the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, the Jewish Journal’s Shmuel Rosner, and others to the New York Time’s Jodi Rudoren this week. Read More »

This post first appeared as “Bar Refaeli Pigs Out on Chocolate” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Refaeli at the SI Swimsuit Edition launch party As Us Weekly likes to tell us, “they’re just like us!” Celebrities apparently do things that regular folks do, like go to the grocery store, make a coffee run, drive a car or change a diaper. Read More »

This, my first regular column for JWeekly, was first published under the headline “Jewish storyline on ‘Downton Abbey’? Stay tuned.” Lady Cora Crawley (neé Levinson) played by Elizabeth McGovern Like so many other Edwardian soap opera lovers, I am obsessed these days with Masterpiece Classic’s “Downton Abbey. Read More »

This post first appeared as “Socialite Zelda Kaplan Dies at Fashion Week” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Socialite Zelda Kaplan, who based on her style could have been separated at birth from Iris Apfel, died suddenly on February 15 while at a New York Fashion Week show. Read More »

This post first appeared as “Introducing The Times of Israel” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. David Horovitz Jewish and Israeli news junkies are rejoicing at the launch yesterday of yet another media outlet — The Times of Israel. Read More »

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Now that Fran Drescher is happily divorced from a gay man and has a TV Land series called — wait for it —”Happily Divorced” about (surprise!) a woman divorced from a gay man, the ex-Nanny is ready to marry some gay people. Don’t misunderstand. Read More »

This post first appeared as “Couple Becomes Oldest Ever To Make Aliyah” on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Dorothy and Philip Grossman as they landed in Israel today. Philip and Dorothy Grossman could think of no better way to show their love for each other, their family and for Israel than to make aliyah this Valentine’s Day. Read More »

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. The Duchess goes for the capote and shtreiml look. Just last week we were treated to a provocative fashion spread in Israel’s Belle Mode magazine that was both inspired by and meant to protest the exclusion of women in the public sphere. Read More »

This review was first published as “From Shtetl to Stage to Screen” on The Arty Semite blog at the Forward. Antony Sher, as Jacob, making a point in Travelling Light “It’s Hollywood in the shtetl.” That’s how playwright Nicholas Wright summed up his new play, “Travelling Light,” now at London’s National Theatre. Read More »

This roundup was first published on The Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On With Zahava Gal-On’s recent election to the leadership of the left-wing Meretz party, women are now heading three major political parties in Israel (There’s also Shelly Yachimovich of Labor, and Tzipi Livni of the opposition party, Kadima. Read More »

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog at the Forward. Davis with Houston at the 2007 Grammys “There ain’t no party like a Clive Davis party,” said Sean “Diddy” Combs at Clive Davis’s pre-Grammy party this past Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Read More »

This post first appeared as “SNL Crown Mayim Bialik the Queen of Quirky” on The Shmooze blog at the Foward. Mayim Bialik back in her “Blossom” days It seems Mayim Bialik is everywhere these days. Read More »

This post first appeared on The Shmooze blog a the Forward. Michelle Slonim Comedic actress Michelle Slonim may like to joke around, but she is taking Valentine’s Day very seriously. So much so that she has planned a Date My Jewish Friend Extravaganza for the entire month of February. Read More »