In the seventh installment of The Nigun Project, the Forward’s artist in residence, Jeremiah Lockwood, performs with Khaira Arby and her band, in town from Timbuktu, Mali. Read More »
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Settlers End West Bank Construction Moratorium in Response to Hebron Terror
A settlers’ umbrella group unilaterally ended the West Bank construction moratorium in response to the terrorist attack near Hebron. Read More »
New Book: Nazi-Hunting Wiesenthal Was Mossad Agent
Simon Wiesenthal, the Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to tracking down Nazi war criminals, was seen all his life as a one-man organization. But now, documents from his estate show he was a Mossad agent. Read More »
Netanyahu and Abbas Each Give a Little on Day One of Talks
Tell us what you want. Now listen to what your partner wants. Now tell us what your partner wants. Read More »
The Forward’s Next Step Involves You
The Forward, one of the most beloved and distinguished institutions in American journalism, is moving beyond its traditional bounds of ink and paper to become a full-fledged citizen of the new digital world. Read More »
At Peace Talks, Arab Leaders Call for Settlement Freeze and Final Status
At the launch of renewed peace talks, Arab leaders called on Israel to sustain a settlement freeze and to negotiate final status issues. Read More »
For Many Jews, Stem-Cell Ruling Puts Progress at Risk
A wide spectrum of Jewish groups is voicing outrage against a judge’s surprise halting of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and are asserting a crucial Jewish stake in reversing the ruling. Read More »
Yid Lit: Rachel Shukert
In her new memoir, “Everything is Going to Be Great,” author and performer Rachel Shukert travels to Europe after college to “escape the weight of own expectations,” which involves no small measure of drinking, gallivanting and sleeping with (non-American) boys. Read More »
Piyutim, Poetry In Conservative’s New Prayer Book
How awesome is God? Not at all, not anymore, according to the new Conservative High Holy Day prayer book, Mahzor Lev Shalem, the movement’s first new prayer book since 1972. Read More »
Kosher BBQ Lovers Try Not To Overcook the Brisket
“Kosher” and “barbecue” are two words that don’t normally fit together in one sentence, but the oldest Orthodox synagogue in Memphis has found a way to make it work by focusing on beef and beans. Read More »
Are Direct Talks the Last Chance for Two-State Solution?
Officials from all sides are striving to keep expectations low for the new direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, a reflection of the disillusioned mood the parties bring to the table. Read More »
Survey Says Young Jews Do Care About Israel
Peter Beinart’s essay in The New York Review of Books last spring painted a picture of young American Jews as alienated, increasingly disengaged from the Jewish state and what he called the “illiberal” policies of its current government, and “less willing to grant Israel an exemption because its survival seems in peril. Read More »
Survey Says Young Jews Do Care About Israel
Peter Beinart’s essay in The New York Review of Books last spring painted a picture of young American Jews as alienated, increasingly disengaged from the Jewish state and what he called the “illiberal” policies of its current government, and “less willing to grant Israel an exemption because its survival seems in peril. Read More »
Barak Sees a Jerusalem Divided
Israel would be willing to divide control over Jerusalem as part of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an Israeli newspaper. Read More »
The Sacred and the Profane
A little girl on a kibbutz is born pregnant and believes that her baby will be the Messiah. A Haitian-Jewish student comes to school on Purim in Muslim garb… with a bomb strapped to his chest. An image of the Virgin Mary appears in a synagogue before the High Holy Days. Read More »
Barak: Israel Willing to Divide Jerusalem
Israel would be willing to divide control over Jerusalem as part of a peace deal, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told an Israeli newspaper. Read More »
Bel Kaufman Dancing the Tango at 99
“On May 10, 2011, I will be 100!” Bel Kaufman said in amazement during our August 26 lunch at Shun Lee West. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel. I have never been 100. Read More »
Jews’ Houses Ain’t Castles: They’re Shuls
Chuck Meyer of Ewing, N.J., writes to ask why a Jewish house of worship is known as a synagogue. Read More »
What Does a Holiday of Renewal Mean for One Who Is Basically New?
On an August weekend blissfully free of this summer’s scorching heat, I attended a wedding in Manhattan, the marriage of a childhood friend. The event was beautiful. Read More »
Deconstructing Honey Cake
‘Honey cake is not so much loved as revered,” Arthur Schwartz writes in “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited” (Ten Speed Press, 2008). Truer culinary words have never been written. Honey cake is a symbolic super food and an undisputed fixture on many Rosh Hashanah tables. Read More »
September 10, 2010
100 Years Ago in the Forward : Tragedy struck in Brooklyn when a new mother threw her baby out of a fourth-floor window, killing the infant. Read More »
Four Israelis Killed in Attack Near Hebron
Four Jewish Israelis were killed when gunmen opened fire on the car they were riding in at the entrance to Kiryat Arba, near Hebron. Read More »
Campaign Pushes Yom Kippur as Device-Free Day
A new campaign is promoting Yom Kippur as a day to disconnect from technology. Read More »
A Century of Recording And Making History
If you’ve never heard of Ruth Gruber, Bob Richman’s documentary “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber,” will certainly enlighten you. Read More »
U.S. Launches Preparation Meetings for Peace Talks
The United States launched meetings in preparation for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks. Read More »
Barak, Abbas Hold Secret Meeting
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly met secretly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the eve of peace talks. Read More »
Netanyahu: Only Likud Can Make Peace with Palestinians
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that only his Likud party can forge real and lasting peace with the Palestinians. Read More »
State Dept. Condemns Yosef Remarks About Abbas
The Obama administration condemned what it said was incitement by an influential Israeli rabbi. Read More »
Three Iranian Jews Shot Dead in L.A.
Three members of Los Angeles’ Iranian Jewish community were shot and killed in West Hollywood. Read More »
In Widely Condemned Remarks, Shas Rabbi Says Abbas ‘Should Perish’
On the eve of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party wished for the demise of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Read More »
Reporters’ Roundtable: Jabotinsky’s Legacy; the Jews of Argentina
In this week’s Forward Reporters’ Roundtable, host Josh Nathan-Kazis speaks with staff writer Gal Beckerman about the life and worldview of the late revisionist Zionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky, and about those who consider themselves Jabotinsky’s ideological heirs. Read More »
Take That, Walt and Mearsheimer: An Author Scrutinizes the Arab Lobby
Three years ago, professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer packaged their critique of the pro-Israel lobby into a 400-plus page tome that has become a bible for critics of Israel’s influence in Washington. Now, a new book, nearly as thick and just as detailed, turns the tables on the two academics. Read More »
Obama’s Approval Rating Is Higher Among Jews
Jews gave President Obama an above-average job approval rating compared to other religious groups in the U.S. Read More »
Bibi Proposes Biweekly Meetings With Abbas
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed to the U.S. administration on Thursday that he hold a face-to-face meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas every two weeks to try to forge covert understandings and set principles to solve every issue. Read More »
Israel Begins Forming Team for Direct Peace Talks
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening began forming Israel’s negotiating team for the direct peace negotiations set to commence next week in Washington, the Prime Minister’s Office announced. Read More »
Jewish Republican Leader Mehlman Says He Is Gay
The first Jewish chief of the Republican Party came out as gay. Read More »
Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Musician Turned Orthodox Jew
A suspect has been arrested in the shooting death in New York of a former hip-hop musician turned Orthodox Jew. Read More »
Lawsuit Accuses IRS of Screening Israel-Related Charities
A hawkish pro-Israel activist group has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Internal Revenue Service is impeding or denying applications for tax-exempt status from nonprofit organizations that oppose the Obama administration’s Israel policies. But experts in nonprofit tax law say that the allegations seem far-fetched. Read More »
Remembering Jewish Doctors
Described as a “celebration of the creativity of Soviet Yiddish culture on the anniversary of its near destruction,” the August 12 event at the Center for Jewish History was sponsored by the Congress for Jewish Culture, the Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring, the Jewish Labor Committee, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Culture and the Forverts. Read More »
Yizkor for Jabotinsky: The Prophet Half-Heeded
The 70th anniversary of the death of Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, father of Revisionist Zionism, passed quietly this year. This was not a result of neglect; Jabotinsky simply does not need a special day to be remembered, not when most of the members of the current Israeli government would classify themselves as “Jabotinskyites. Read More »
West Bank Security Barrier Draws Artists and Advertisers
What many Israelis see as a security barrier, and many Palestinians see as a prison wall, Majd Abdel Hamid sees as a blank canvas. Read More »
Anniversary of WTC Attack To Prompt Rallies Amid Holy Days
The lunar calendars of two religions and the electoral cycle are coming into alignment with the controversy that has seized the nation, setting the stage for a political and religious drama on the narrow streets of Lower Manhattan on September 11. Read More »
High Holy Days Are Free at Some Shuls, And Worshipers Flock
When the waiting list for High Holy Day tickets reached 700, leaders of the downtown Sixth and I Historic Synagogue decided to look outside the box — in their case, to the Chinese Community Church across the street. Read More »
New Goldstone Follow-Up Probe Will Hold Hamas Accountable for First Time
A year and a half after Israel’s Gaza military operation — the focus of the United Nations’ damning Goldstone Report — a new investigation launched by the Human Rights Council and due in mid-September will finally examine what Hamas has done to account for its own role in the conflict. Read More »
Losing a Mentor, Gaining an Opponent
Three years ago, Naftali Bennett was celebrating with Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett had just managed Netanyahu’s successful campaign in the Likud primaries, in which the former prime minister won a decisive victory over far-right challenger Moshe Feiglin, cementing his control over the party and paving the way for his return to the premiership. Read More »
Gunfire Silences a Jamaican Hip-Hop Artist and Convert ‘Kidnapped by God’
On Yoseph Robinson’s website, a Brooklyn street scene fades into an image of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The man in the images leans idly against a Brooklyn lamp; at the Wall he prays, standing erect. Read More »
The Egyptian Plumber and My ‘Eurabia’ Problem
The toilet in my Milan apartment hadn’t worked for weeks. Standing outside the entrance to the bathroom, I listened to the sounds of the plumber applying his tools, speaking in hushed Arabic to his assistant. My wife had let them in while I’d been out walking our dogs. Read More »
At Ground Zero, a Fight We’re All Losing
Let’s try this: Women wearing a hijab, the Muslim head covering, ought not be allowed to walk on the perimeter of Ground Zero, lest they offend the sensibilities of the survivors of 9/11. Read More »
The Dirty Truth About Being a Tourist in Israel
They tell you that you have to come to Israel. They tell you it will change your life. They tell you that with every other country, you can come and go as you please, but Israel, you can never really leave, because Israel will never leave you. Read More »
In Cuba, a Hostage to International Brinkmanship
Alan Gross, an American Jew and USAID contractor, has sat in a Cuban prison for nearly nine months. Jews, whose history is bound together by stories of exile and return, captivity and freedom, long for his release. Read More »
September 3, 2010
Changing the Conservative movement’s name to “Masorti” would be beneficial because it is Hebrew and could thus be comfortably used by Jews affiliated with the movement worldwide. Read More »
The Israeli Right’s ‘Post-Nationalism’ Excuse
George Will, the conservative Washington Post columnist, was in the Israeli prime minister’s office a few weeks ago and came away with a fascinating new take on Israel’s image troubles. Read More »
Forverts Cooking Show: Sorrel Soup and Matzah Meal Latkes
In the third installment of the Yiddish Forward’s online cooking show, “Eat in Good Health,” Rukhl “Ray” Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz’s prepare sorrel soup and matzah meal latkes. Read More »
Barak: Deporting Children of Migrant Workers Would Cause ‘Irreversible Damage’
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday he would call for a renewed discussion during the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday of the decision to deport 400 children of migrant workers, as the deportation would create “irreversible damage. Read More »
Wealth and Self-Loathing
The scene comes near the middle of Sharon Pomerantz’s sprawling new book, “Rich Boy,” and one slice of dialogue captures the central tension in this page-turning debut novel. Read More »
Rescind the Ban on Attending Interfaith Weddings
When I decided to become a rabbi in 1996, I visited the Jewish Theological Seminary, my future rabbinical school. Along with sitting in on some classes, I stayed in the apartment of four first-year rabbinical students. I still recall a discussion we had at the Shabbat dinner table. Read More »
Anti-Semitism 101
The conceit of Randy Cohen’s new play, “The Punishing Blow,” requires a bit of setup. At some point in the past, second-rate college professor Leslie (Seth Duerr) was arrested for what amounts to an overblown case of public drunkenness — specifically, ramming his car into a ginkgo tree and then waking the neighborhood with his drunken ranting. Read More »
If English Was Good Enough for Jesus Christ…
We are truly in a “biblical” era. The sheer volume of contemporary work translating, commenting on, interpreting and exegeting the Bible is astounding for what one would think would be a well-worked mine. Read More »
A Cordoban Chord
Michael Hecht writes: “A timely article might be about the implications of the name Cordoba House for the proposed Islamic center at Ground Zero. Read More »
September 3, 2010
100 Years Ago in the forward : Paula Lipman, who resides in New York City on Clinton Street and arrived in the United States seven years ago, was brought by ambulance to the mental ward at Bellevue Hospital after falling into a bout of hysteria. Apparently, her husband disappeared six months after their wedding, which was a year ago. Read More »
