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.
The Doctoral Students’ Council at the City University of New York passed on Friday. The resolution passed with 42 students in favor, 19 opposed and 9 abstentions, and endorsed the call to “boycott Israeli academic institutions for as long as the Israeli state continues to violate Palestinian rights under international law.” The academic boycott of…
The City University of New York’s efforts to deal with charges and countercharges about anti-Semitism and free speech on campus regarding Israel will soon face a daunting new challenge: On April 15, the school system’s graduate student council will vote on a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions. Hamad Sindhi, co-chair for communications at CUNY’s…
When Rabbi Mordecai Herman would visit the Lower East Side of the 1920s, then teeming with Jewish immigrants from Europe, he cut an intriguing figure. He was a wizened black rabbi and former sailor from Harlem who spoke Hebrew, some Yiddish, and was a pioneering spiritual leader of the early black Israelite movement. Now, nearly…
The poster on the door of the Hillel at John Jay College of Criminal Justice reads “Safe Zone.” Above it hangs an Israeli flag, an American flag and another sign: “Israel wants peace.” Take two steps down the narrow hallway on the ground floor of this Manhattan campus, and there is another, very different message….
Two Jewish New York state assemblymen are calling for the “immediate suspension” of a pro-Palestinian student group from the City University of New York’s campuses — charging that members “stoke the flame of hatred and encourage violence against Jews.” In a Tuesday letter to CUNY, Democrats Dov Hikind and David Weprin, demanded that Students for…
The New York State Senate has voted to slash $485 million in funding to senior colleges in the City University of New York system to “send a message” that they have not done enough to fight campus anti-Semitism. On March 14, a state budget resolution championed by Republicans passed after a sprawling two-hour debate on…
The New York State Senate has voted to slash $485 million in funding to senior colleges in the City University of New York system to “send a message” that not done enough to fight campus anti-Semitism. On March 14, a state budget resolution championed by Republicans passed after a sprawling 2-hour debate on the Senate…
The Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s premier yeshiva is seeking to assure parents that no sexual or physical abuse is taking place within its walls following a detailed report on allegations of such abuse in the past. “I categorically assure you that there is absolutely no abuse taking place in Oholei Torah that we know of,” Rabbi Sholom…
100% of profits support our journalism
