Purim

A Partial Retraction

This paper prides itself on its editorial independence and its willingness to speak the truth, however unpopular. But after due consideration, we at the Backward have concluded that some elements of last week’s editorial, “You Asked For It,” do not stand up to scrutiny:Read More

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Backward: A Video

By Forward Staff

In the spirit of Purim, Forward staffers set out to learn what New Yorkers knew about Jews.Read More

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A Kindler, Gentler Jihad

By Forward Staff

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is undergoing a multimillion dollar image makeover and will now be known simply as “jihad,” the militant organization announced in February.Read More

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Eternally Wandering Jew Comes Home

By Backward Staff Writer

The eternally wandering Jew, long thought to be a legendary figure from Christian tales, recently arrived home safely, clutching a cup of Mochaccino.TMRead More

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God Resumes Prophecy — Via Twitter

By Joanie Weiss

These days, it seems, nobody can afford not to Tweet — not even the Creator of the universe.Read More

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Israel Reins in Firebrand Minister

By Joanie Weiss

To limit diplomatic fallout from Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s inflammatory public comments, Israeli officials have begun staging a series of fake public appearances to fool Lieberman into believing that the outside world is listening to him. These events are totally closed affairs and are stocked with a mixture of Foreign Ministry staff and homeless people, all of whom are required to sign nondisclosure waivers about Lieberman’s comments. In this photograph, Lieberman addresses those he believes to be attendees at the 2010 Herzliya Conference and lays out his strategy for machine-gunning West Bank goats suspected of terrorist activity. In fact, the event was staged at a middle school in Kenosha, Wis.Read More

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Israeli Rabbinate Declares Non-Orthodox Jews ‘Kosher — and Delicious’

By Rob Kutner

In a historic ruling, the Israeli rabbinate has finally decided to recognize Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative Jews — as the perfect entree for Shabbat dinner.Read More

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What’s a Nice Gerund Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

By Phil O’Lologous

When people ask me who put the “sin in cinema,” I respond, “Kenneth Marcus of Englewood Heights, N.J.” Into their dropped jaws I explain that during the early days of American movies — when Englewood and environs were Hollywood and Broadway rolled into one — Mr. Marcus wanted to lend a sheen of sophistication to his tawdry fare.Read More

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If You Agree With Me, Then You Are Right

It has recently come to my attention that you’ve got some disagreements with me about the issues. In a series of letters to the editor, you’ve suggested that my logic is flawed, that I’m ill-informed about issues, that I misrepresent facts and that my knowledge of history is thin at best. These are all fair and reasonable points, and I appreciate your bringing them to my attention.Read More

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I. B. Singer’s Secret Hispanic Meydl

A newly-discovered hand-written letter written in Yiddish by Isaac Bashevis Singer to Magdalena Salazar, his Mexican maid of seven years in the Upper West Side apartment he shared with his wife Alma, offers insight into a previously unknown romantic liaison by the Nobel Prize winner. Stuck to a Zabar’s grocery list which had a late reworking of Singer’s “Gimpel the Fool” scribbled on it, the letter was found during Digitize Yiddish Week at the King’s Ransom Humanities Center in Austin, Texas. In translating it I found a handful of words undecipherable. Mrs. Salazar, who stopped working for the Singers in 1964, wasn’t mentioned in Singer’s will in 1991, the year of his death.Read More

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