Louis Keene is a reporter for the Forward. His work has also been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine and VICE. He is based in Los Angeles and can be followed on Twitter @thislouis.
Louis Keene
By Louis Keene
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News L.A. teachers sidestep BDS resolution in decisive union vote
A resolution to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the second-largest teachers’ union in the country met a quiet demise Thursday evening, defying a trend among public school boards that accelerated after the Gaza-Israel war last May. In a meeting of the United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents roughly 30,000…
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Culture Bless the moon? The case for Yom Kippur’s hardest mitzvah
This year, say yes to Kiddush Levana.
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Culture An oral history of the most epic Jewish summer camp prank ever
The summer before 10th grade, some friends of mine pulled off what I have long thought had to be the most outrageous prank of all time: spoiling the biggest twist in the Harry Potter series for an entire sleepaway camp. It happened at Camp Ramah in Ojai, Calif., on July 18, 2005, two days after…
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Fast Forward YU student accuses basketball player of rape, says school investigation fell short
A Yeshiva University student accused a member of its men’s basketball team of raping her and the school of treating her callously in an anonymous piece published Wednesday in the student newspaper, the YU Commentator. “The school didn’t want to do anything against the basketball team publicly, because they don’t want any negativity about that…
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News Scandal-plagued Chabad of Poway returns to family control as independent board steps down
The family of a rabbi who made his San Diego-area synagogue the center of a sprawling network of tax fraud has regained control of the synagogue’s finances, state filings show, replacing a board that had sought to bring accountability to the institution. For decades, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein had exploited a lack of oversight at Chabad…
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Fast Forward Lawsuit: Monsey rabbi sexually assaulted children — and his bosses covered it up
A rabbi sexually assaulted children while he was supposed to be treating them for mental health issues, and the prominent Jewish institutions he worked for covered it up, claims a lawsuit filed in New York August 13. Rabbi Yaakov David Klar allegedly carried out his abuse while he was a social worker at Chai Lifeline,…
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Culture Scrap the sermon? In the pandemic rabbis decide less is more
A time to learn, a time to feel, a time to snooze: the rabbi’s sermon. For centuries it has given Saturday morning prayer services their character and depth — and their length. But last summer, when Orthodox synagogues across the United States held abridged outdoor services to limit the spread of COVID-19, the sermon —…
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Culture Twists and turns: How a Jewish gymnastic prodigy became an Olympic diver
Not long after Brandon Loschiavo started taking gymnastics at the age of four, he made a bold declaration to his mother. “He told me, ‘Mom, I’m going to go to the Olympics,’” recalled Laura Loschiavo. “He’s pretty committed, so once he says something he usually does it.” Nearly two decades later, Loschiavo is in Tokyo…
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Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
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News What Mike Huckabee’s ‘Kids Guide to Israel’ says about his views
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Culture At 95, Shaindel Schreiber is still dispensing babka and advice on the Lower East Side
In Case You Missed It
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News Israel reached a ceasefire in Lebanon. Why does Gaza seem so hard?
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Culture Barbra Streisand recorded here — and so did Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, John Lennon and, uh, The Village People
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Fast Forward Lee Zeldin, Trump’s pick to helm EPA, says he received bomb threat with ‘pro-Palestinian themed message’
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Opinion We can be thankful this year — and Jewish wisdom can help
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