Jodi Rudoren

3 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Jodi Rudoren

When the Hebrew words felt empty, a rabbi suggested thinking of it as "Wow! Please? Thank you."As part of "Sign up to receive the latest installments of "Believing" in your inbox. Believing," The New York Times asked several writers to explore a significant moment in their religious or spiritual lives. I was many weeks into reciting kaddish, the traditional Jewish prayer of mourning, for my father when I realized I did not know how to pray.

2 months ago | forward.com | Jodi Rudoren

In that famous Jewish book of aphorisms, Ethics of the Fathers, one has always resonated with me. Who is wise? asks the sage known as Ben Zoma. One who learns from every person. Ben Zoma, who lived in the second century C.E., could have been a journalist. To "learn from every person" is why I got into this racket as a teenager. It's what I've tried to do every day of these tumultuous past five years as editor-in-chief of the Forward. To approach the world with curiosity.

2 months ago | forward.com | Jodi Rudoren

When Seba Abudaqa, a Palestinian who grew up in Gaza, moved to Germany a few years ago because of her husband's job, she adopted a simple mantra: When in doubt, learn German. If Abudaqa felt lonely or missed her family, she'd whip out her smartphone and open Duolingo ( she has a 966-day streak). If she felt uncertain about work, she'd practice new vocabulary. Amid problems that felt overwhelming, it steadied her enough to take the next step forward. Since the Oct.

2 months ago | forward.com | Jodi Rudoren

Just before New Year's, I learned via social media that a casual friend in Montclair - member of our synagogue, dad of a kid in our kids' grade - was having a recurrence of a rare cancer he thought he'd beaten 17 years before. I texted "hugs" and, a few days later, dropped off a couple quarts of homemade soup. Cauliflower-chickpea-curry, if I remember correctly. Two weeks later, I left two fresh quarts, maybe mushroom barley, along with some homemade energy bars, on their front steps.

2 months ago | forward.com | Jodi Rudoren

It's Purim 2025, the holiday where we must get so drunk that we can't tell the difference between Mahmoud Khalil and Elon Musk. Maybe we don't even need to be drunk. Both men grew up abroad: Khalil in Syria, to a Palestinian family that fled a village near Tiberias in 1948; Musk in apartheid South Africa, where he attended a Jewish kindergarten and graduated from Pretoria Boys High School.