Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
With Egypt’s first democratic elections ending in a landslide win for the Muslim Brotherhood, the United States has decided to open formal discussions with the Islamist group. Israel has also relaxed its years-long resistance to engaging with the political movement. American Jewish organizations, however, remain reluctant to reach out to the Brotherhood because of its…
Jacob (Jack) Lew, an Orthodox Jew, will be taking over as the White House Chief of Staff, a position considered to be closest to the President’s ear. Lew’s appointment was announced Monday, shortly after news broke that the current chief of staff William Daley is stepping down. Lew currently serves as director of the Office…
A month-long war of words within Democratic circles has exposed vulnerabilities and sensitivities on all sides when it comes to criticizing and defending Israel. The conflict, reflecting a broader split that shows up in opinion polls of the Democratic party’s rank and file, shows that advocates confront politically fraught boundaries when they discuss their divisions…
Rick Santorum, who shocked the political world by coming within a whisker of winning the Iowa Republican caucuses, has long touted his pro-Israel and anti-Iran policies on the campaign trail. But Santorum still faces a tough road ahead as he fights to prove he belongs on the national stage. His ultraconservative ideology, which includes an…
Prominent New York Rabbi Marc Schneier has returned from the Bahrain claiming a major advance in Jewish dialogue with Islam: a promise by the Gulf state’s ruler to convene a first ever meeting of religious leaders from both faiths in the kingdom. Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, returned from his trip on…
With polls predicting a comfortable second-place finish — or even a shot at first — for Ron Paul in the nation’s first GOP presidential test in Iowa, the Texas libertarian is laughing all through the cornfields, and Jewish activists are starting to worry. Once disregarded as marginal and unimportant, Paul, a staunch opponent of American…
The leaders of Reform Judaism, America’s largest Jewish denomination, aim to staunch their movement’s erosion with a new strategy to reach beyond the synagogue and actively search for Jews living outside the community’s established framework. The strategy, articulated at the group’s recent biennial national conference, is the brainchild of Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the movement’s newly…
In its 30 years of existence, Shas has evolved from a marginal ethnic political group to Israel’s fourth largest party in the Knesset and is today the unchallenged kingmaker of Israeli politics. Now, Shas — or in its full name, the Sephardic Torah Guardians Movement — is attempting to establish a beachhead among American Sephardic…
100% of profits support our journalism
