No one lost their Jewish name at Ellis Island — but we gained a haven By Andrew Silow-Carroll, JTA Sep 15, 2021 Shortly before he died, my dad gave me a trove of family documents, some dating to the 19th century. For the first time I had confirmation of what our family name was before a great-uncle changed it to Carroll when he and his brothers immigrated to America. My father’s parents moved from Russia to Paris… Read More
Author! Author! New middle-grade title gets a ‘Book Mitzvah’ debut event After attending her best friend’s bat mitzvah, 12-year-old Hannah tells her parents that she wants to have one, too. When they say no — Hannah belongs to… By Andrew Esensten Sep 14, 2021
Off the Shelf New books: The nearly forgotten world of Jewish folk healing My father’s sister Sandra suffered terribly from lupus. After Sandra fell into a long coma as a teenager, my grandmother traveled more than 1,000 miles… By Howard Freedman Sep 10, 2021
Books New memoir: Grieving his mother while the towers were falling During the best of times, grief is a difficult, lonely, messy process. Losing someone we love shakes our being to the core. But losing someone we love… By Robert Nagler Miller Sep 9, 2021
Comics She’s 16. She’s Jewish. She’s Gotham’s newest superhero. Willow Zimmerman is a 16-year-old activist. When she isn’t in school or holding up a picket sign, she can be found batch-baking rugelach or splitting a… By PJ Grisar, Forward Sep 2, 2021
Books An oral history: How a Harry Potter prank spoiled summer camp The summer before 10th grade, some friends of mine pulled off what I have long thought had to be the most outrageous prank of all time: spoiling the… By Louis Keene, Forward Sep 1, 2021
Books Rabbi recounts heartrending year in Vietnam in new memoir Rabbi Sheldon Lewis wasn’t planning on writing a seventh book during the pandemic. But a virtual reunion he attended put him in a reflective state of… By Alix Wall Aug 26, 2021
Obituaries Jack Hirschman, S.F. poet laureate and ‘bad Jew,’ dies at 87 Legendary working-class poet Jack Hirschman, a longtime denizen of North Beach who once described himself as “a bad Jew,” died on Aug. 22 at his home in… By Patricia Corrigan Aug 24, 2021
Books Her debut novel is about a Jewish girl in Manitoba (just like she was) Sandy Shefrin Rabin had thought about writing a novel since the age of 12. But it wasn’t until many decades later that the busy Mill Valley neurologist… By Liz Harris Aug 23, 2021