Maia Efrem is the former research editor and assistant to the editor and was also responsible for the Forward’s annual Salary Survey. Previously she served as the editor of Blognik Beat, a blog written by students who emigrated from or have ties to the Former Soviet Union. Maia is a graduate of Hunter College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.
At lunchtime on a street corner on the west side of Manhattan, a spot not typically known for its cuisine, people with palates from East and West line the sidewalk for one thing — falafel. Customers at the Quick Stop truck, a “Moving Kosher Experience”, hungrily accept their large pita sandwiches stuffed to the brim…
On August 12, over 100 people gathered at New York’s Center for Jewish History to mark the 58th anniversary of the Night of the Murdered Poets, commemorating the Stalin-ordered execution of 13 prominent Soviet Jews, including five Yiddish writers. Among those murdered were novelist David Bergelson and poet Peretz Markish, who was awarded the Stalin…
For the first time in about 30 years, Providence, R.I., public schools will remain open during the Jewish High Holy Days this fall, a decision that came as an unpleasant surprise to the local Jewish community. In a meeting with Jewish community leaders, school officials cited as their rationale for keeping schools open on Rosh…
The Social Security Administration has added two genetic diseases that affect Ashkenazi Jews to its Compassionate Allowances list, expediting the awarding of disability aid to sufferers and their families. Tay-Sachs and Maple Syrup Urine disease were added to the list effective March 1, 2010. They were among 38 diseases and cancers added to the original…
The first few bars of DeScribe’s new video, “Harmony,” are an Auto-Tuned proclamation of love, respect and unity. Standing behind a microphone, surrounded by Jewish and African American teenagers, the bearded 28-year-old rapper advocates love and understanding between the two communities and the world at large. On August 2 DeScribe, also known as Shneur Hasofer,…
Workers who were fired by a Brooklyn kosher food producer after demanding overtime pay have been protesting outside the owner’s house and a supermarket this summer, and preparing for a return to the National Labor Relations Board this fall. Flaum Appetizing, Inc., a producer of kosher salads, pickles, and smoked fish, has been embroiled in…
A local Jewish leader reported that fears and tensions were rising in his community in Malmo, Sweden, after a small explosive device went off at the door of the local synagogue early on the morning of July 23. Though no one was hurt, the blast’s impact shattered three windows and damaged the remaining five windows…
The first annual New York Sephardic Jewish Book Fair on July 25th at the [Center for Jewish History][2] was a quiet success. What started as a push by the American Sephardi Federation to sell marked-down books by Sephardic authors snowballed into a day-long event featuring 11 speakers, a constant flow of about four dozen patrons,…
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