Videos

Rubashkin’s Jail Sentence Denounced by Angry Haredim

By Gal Beckerman

A wave of outrage rippled through New York’s Haredi community, crossing the usual ultra-Orthodox divisions, in response to the June 21 announcement that Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin would be sent to a federal jail for 27 years for bank fraud, with no possibility of parole.Read More

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Just Two Minutes To Tell Your Story

By Allison Gaudet Yarrow

On a tepid Monday evening at the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan, a glut of Jewish authors sat alphabetically in a subterranean, windowless ballroom, clutching prepared remarks or copies of their recently published and forthcoming books and networking with fellow Jewish writers. Over the course of several days, 196 of them took two minutes each to sell themselves and their work to the Jewish Book Network — an association of Jewish community centers, synagogues and cultural organizations — which will summon their favorites to the country’s far corners, giving lucky authors an unparalleled platform to push their books.Read More

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Sderot, the Capital of Rockets and Rock

By Dan Friedman

You know you’ve arrived in Sderot because you turn from the dusty highway onto a city street bordered by a thin roadside park with new decorations and beautifully manicured lawns. Three years ago this park was a dump, but donations from Jewish National Fund groups — like the one holding a ceremony in the park, under a tasteful canopy that protects participants from the blazing sun — have transformed the approach to the city. And, after mostly ignoring it for 50 years, everyone’s arriving in Sderot.Read More

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Watch: Forward Columnist Jay Michaelson on American Jews and Israel

WNBC’s “The Debrief with David Ushery” talks to Forward columnist Jay Michaelson about what Michaelson sees as American Jews’ growing disconnect from Israel. He also weighs in on the comments that ended Helen Thomas’ career.Read More

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Say Cheese

By Leah Koenig

At the turn of the 20th century, a young immigrant named Ben Moskowitz took a job as a dairyman among the chaotic jumble of pushcarts and crowded markets in Lower Manhattan. Two generations later, his son and grandson — Joseph and Adam Moskowitz — carry on his legacy at their international cheese and specialty food importing company, Larkin.Read More

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Mah Jongg's Jewish Journey

How did the popular Chinese tile game mah jongg become a favorite pastime — often, a social lifeline — for generations of Jewish women in America? Melissa Martens, senior curator of exhibitions at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, recently sat down in the Forward studio with Sisterhood contributor Elissa Strauss to discusses the game’s history, its rituals, and its 21st-century following.Read More

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Germany: A 3G Love Story

By Allison Gaudet Yarrow

In America we know the poignant narratives of the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, but we are less familiar with the generation of Germans whose forebears either sympathized with Nazis or turned their eyes away from the atrocities of camps and gas chambers. Photographer Adam Golfer aims to change this.Read More

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Connecting Disparate Worlds

Arye Carmon, the president of the Israel Democracy Institute, think tank, has been taking photographs for more than 40 years. Only recently, though, has he received recognition for his artwork. Arye Carmon recently visited the Forward’s studio to discuss the recent exhibition of his work at the Max Lang gallery in New York City.Read More

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Deborah Gross: Blogger Turned Comedienne

By Allison Gaudet Yarrow

Deborah Gross has so many funny conversations that she began blogging them — verbatim. She teaches people how to use the ATM. Her signature accessory, a family heirloom, gets mistaken for a swastika. And she has cultivated a unique relationship with an employee at the Dunkin’ Donuts she frequents where many of her conversations take place. Gross’ blog, Conversations with Deb serves as a template for a new show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York City, in which she recreates zany conversations she has had with strangers, her family and bad dates.Read More

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Leonard Lopate: Former Yiddish Choir Boy

By Dan Friedman

For 25 years Leonard Lopate has been interviewing and conversing with the world’s leading artists, novelists, chefs, scientists and politicians on WNYC, New York’s leading NPR station. After 20 years he was interviewed by Tom Brokaw and now, for his Silver Jubilee, here he is with the Arts & Culture editor of the Forward, Dan Friedman.Read More

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