Gal Beckerman was a staff writer and then the Forward’s opinion editor until 2014. He was previously an assistant editor at the Columbia Journalism Review where he wrote essays and media criticism. His book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review and Bookforum. His first book, “When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry,” won the 2010 National Jewish Book Award and the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, as well as being named a best book of the year by The New Yorker and The Washington Post. Follow Gal on Twitter at @galbeckerman
Gal Beckerman
By Gal Beckerman
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Breaking News New USCJ Chief Responds to Crisis With Cuts — and Candor
See an updated version of this story here. United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism has instituted a broad restructuring that will include deep cuts in staff, a consolidation of its services and even a reduction in its board of directors from 180 to 75 members. The board approved the changes in a vote on September 13….
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News Operation Abraham Coming to America?
In late August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gathered hundreds of scientists and public health professionals in Atlanta for its biannual conference to discuss the issue of HIV prevention. One presentation, delivered by an Israeli doctor, managed to catch more media attention than any other, and to trigger the ire of a group…
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News Birthright Alumni Center Tied to Haredi Outreach Group
Many of the young people who pass through the Jewish Enrichment Center in Lower Manhattan view it with great affection. It is often the first time they have come in contact with a Judaism that is engaging and accessible. The rabbis responsible for the center’s educational and religious programs are charismatic and approachable people who,…
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News William Korey, Soviet Jewry Activist, 87
William Korey spent more than 30 years of his life deeply involved with the struggle to allow free emigration for Soviet Jews. But when I interviewed him in his Queens apartment a few years ago, he did not hide the fact that he never liked to work on individual cases. “There would be no end…
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News Largest Outreach Effort for Alums of Birthright Raises Concerns
Taglit-Birthright Israel, the highly regarded Jewish communal initiative that has sent more than 200,000 young Jews on free trips to Israel, has carefully tended its image as pluralistic and inclusive. But the religious slant and political orientation of the largest, most well-funded organizer of follow-up programs for Birthright alumni is raising concerns, even among top…
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News With Each New Assessment, Iran’s Nuclear Clock Is Reset
The senior Israeli official’s tone was dire. In only a few years, the Iranians would be ready to launch a nuclear bomb. He minced no words. “If Iran is not interrupted in this program by some foreign power, it will have the device in more or less five years.” The year this apocalyptic prediction was…
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News An Odd Political Alliance of Left and Right Walks the Streets of Brooklyn
Nowhere has the truism that politics makes strange bedfellows seemed truer than in New York’s 39th City Council district. The district takes in a wide swath of the liberal, gentrifying neighborhoods of Brooklyn’s Brownstone Belt, including Park Slope, a lesbian mecca and a hub of progressive Jewish life. But it also includes a slice of…
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News Charter School’s New Chief Touts Church-State Separation
Standing in the entryway to the building housing the Yeshiva Rambam School in southern Brooklyn, Maureen Campbell was every bit the New York City principal — tough, fast-talking and exceedingly patient. “Now this is very important. The Rambam Yeshiva will be that way,” she said, waving one arm toward a stairway leading to the second…
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