Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.
Sam Kestenbaum
By Sam Kestenbaum
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Fast Forward This Jewish Student Is Creating A New Book Of Feminist Blessings
After being catcalled at a neighborhood deli some months ago, New School senior Emily Rogal felt jarred and upset. She wished she had a way to feel safe. So she took out her phone and began writing. She called it her composition the “bodega bracha,” using a Hebrew word for blessing. “I call myself halachically…
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Fast Forward Neo-Nazis And ‘Alt-Right’ Celebrate Hitler’s Birthday
Neo-Nazi and “alt-right” websites are memorializing Adolf Hitler’s birthday with memes, affectionate messages and more long-winded articles on the “peaceful origins” of the Nazis. “Happy birthday, Uncle Adolf. We’ve never missed you more than we miss you right now,” wrote Andrew Anglin, editor of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer. Hitler was born on April…
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Fast Forward Bill O’Reilly’s 5 Most Jewish Moments
Bill O’Reilly was forced out from his perch as a prime-time Fox News host on Wednesday, after the disclosure of multiple settlements involving sexual harassment allegations led advertisers to abandon the program. Here are five of the longtime pundit’s most Jewish moments. 1. Jon Stewart and O’Reilly O’Reilly and Jon Stewart, the Jewish former host…
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Fast Forward ‘Alt-Right’ Celebrates After Richard Spencer Speech
The “alt-right” is celebrating the ruling of a judge to allow Richard Spencer the right to speak at a university and their recent clashes with antifascist protests as victories for their movement — and as the “deligitimization” of their opponents. “The Alt-Right came together to work like a well-oiled war machine,” a Wednesday post on…
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News For Neo-Nazis, Trump Quickly Falls From Hero To ‘Jewish Pawn’
Before Donald Trump began his political career, neo-Nazis and white nationalists were suspicious of the business tycoon from New York, some accusing him of associating too closely with Jews, maybe even being a “secret Jew” himself. But during the campaign he transformed, becoming an icon for white nationalists who saw him as a vehicle for…
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Fast Forward Pro-Trump Protestors Give Nazi Salute In Berkeley
Amidst raucous protests in Berkeley, California, a number protestors who appeared to be supporters of President Tump posed in front of cameras giving the Nazi salute. A Mother Jones reporter uploaded photos of the salutes on Twitter. Straight up nazis in Berkeley. Guy on left said he was a “national socialist. pic.twitter.com/99Q8wzpOc5 — Shane Bauer…
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News A ‘Jewish Coup’? That’s How ‘Alt-Right’ Explains Away Trump Flip-Flops And Bombings
President Trump’s Thursday bombing of Afghanistan, just a week after an airstrike on Syria, is again challenging his “alt-right” and white nationalist fans. Some of the far right-wingers see the moves as evidence of a full “Jewish coup” sweeping the White House — and are even portraying Trump himself as a sort of victim. “All…
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News Rabbinical Student Urges Black-Jewish Unity At Chicago Seder
At a Passover Seder held on a street corner on the South Side of Chicago, a prominent black rabbinical student urged African-Americans and Jews in Chicago to come together to prevent gun violence. Tamar Manasseh called the April 11 event the “Seder of the Streets” and held it on a South Side street corner, where…
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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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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Film & TV Bonhoeffer biopic tells of a pastor turned would-be Hitler assassin — but is the story true?
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News What Mike Huckabee’s ‘Kids Guide to Israel’ says about his views
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