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.
Hours before entering the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the podium at the General Assembly of Jewish federations to send a message to Obama, the Palestinians and the entire world. Israel, according to Netanyahu, seeks an immediate resumption of peace talks. “Let’s move,” Netanyahu said….
Peace might be just around the corner. Peace in the Jewish communal world, that is. According to Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, while world leaders are talking about promoting the peace process, he is in fact engaged in such a process. The peace Sharansky was speaking about, during a brunch reception…
Jerry Silverman, the new CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America (formerly known as United Jewish Communities), got involved in the Jewish world after a long career in the business world. That background showed at the opening press conference for this year’s General Assembly, where he suggested some ideas that seem as if they…
Relations between Washington and Jerusalem are warming, as months-long tensions over West Bank settlements and other issues have gradually eased. Israeli officials and Jewish communal leaders point to a series of events, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s praise of Israel’s movement on the settlement issue, and President Obama’s upcoming speech at the General…
The umbrella organization for Jewish community federations seems to have the stars aligned for a fresh start: a new name, a bright logo and an A-list lineup of speakers, including President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at its annual General Assembly, which will take place in Washington from November 8-10. But the…
Three days in October catapulted J Street from the sidelines of the Jewish community to the centerfield of major organizations. After winning, in its first national conference, the stamp of approval from the Obama administration and from many in Congress, J Street is ready to cash in on its initial success. But for J Street,…
A Tight Squeeze It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book: When planning an event, make sure the room is a little too small for the number of people you are expecting; that way, the room will always be full. But as J Street began its inaugural national conference October 26 at a Washington…
It is not every day that Rabbi Eric Yoffie gets booed by a lefty crowd. But that is one of the risks when standing up as a keynote speaker at the J Street conference. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism and a leading dovish vote in American Jewry, was one of the earliest…
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