Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the robust lives of American Jews. Here there’s a little of everything about the multifaceted world of Jewish life. There are light-hearted Jewish celebrity stories and shocking Jewish celebrity news. Food is also plentiful,…
Life
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All the President’s Guests
Who is President Bush bringing with him to Israel? The White House has released the names of the “U.S. Honorary Delegation to attend celebrations in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel on May 14-15, 2008 in Jerusalem, Israel.” The list seems to lean pretty decidedly to the right, with a hefty…
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In Other Jewish Newspapers: Israel’s Like Mike, Missing Celebrities, ‘Apprentice’ Kosher Chicken Challenge
‘SISTINE SECRETS’: The New York Jewish Week speaks with the Yeshiva University rabbi whose book on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel has the media buzzing, antisemites foaming and some scholars seething. IMAM’S DEFENDER: A New Jersey imam facing possible deportation over alleged ties to Hamas has found a defender in an area rabbi, who vouches for his…
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Everybody’s ‘Pro-Israel’ Nowadays
From Republicans to Democrats and Aipac to JStreet almost everybody in the American political mainstream says they’re “pro-Israel” nowadays. Heck, if you define pro-Israel as supporting Israel’s right to exist, even Jimmy Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer would qualify. That’s why Ha’aretz’s Shmuel Rosner wants to ” dump the term.” “Without specifics, being ‘pro-Israel’ is…
The Latest
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Lebanon’s ‘Cell Phone Civil War’?
Things are getting ugly in Lebanon. The months-long standoff between Lebanon’s pro-Western government and Hezbollah and its allies has escalated into violence. The trigger? Cell phones. Time magazine reports: The country has been politically paralyzed for 16 months, unable to elect a new president because of a deadlock between government and opposition forces in which…
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Good Tidings From a Muslim Macher, a Former Archbishop, a Movie Mogul — and Don’t Forget the Fresh Prince
Over on Cross-Currents, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein writes: In the space of a single hour this evening, I heard: The former President of the most populous Muslim country on the globe declare that he will not rest until his country recognizes Israel. He then dedicated the honor he received to an unnamed rabbi (in Indonesia!), deceased…
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While Columbia Students Stormed Buildings, at Y.U. They Just Wanted To Play Some Coed Volleyball
New York Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt looks back on the tumultuous spring of 1968 — from the vantage point of a not-too-radical student at a not-too-radical college campus. While his peers at Columbia were busy occupying buildings, Rosenblatt and his fellow Yeshiva University students were engaged in some mischievous — if decidedly less political…
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Mama, Don’t Let Your Rabbis Grow Up To Be Cowboys
When Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb took the reins at the Orthodox Union in 2002, observers took note of the fact that the new executive vice-president of the centrist congregational umbrella group was fond of wearing a black hat of the sort popular in more religiously right-leaning precincts. Now that Weinreb is wrapping up his tenure,…
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Poof, You’re Not Jewish Anymore
Jewschool’s Josh Frankel is up in arms — and with good reason: Just when you thought the conversion mess couldn’t get any worse – the good folk in Israel drop another bomb. The Jerusalem Post reports that the High Rabbinical Court has ruled to invalidate, retroactively, all of the conversions performed by Rabbi Chaim Druckman…
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Israel Turns 60, and Britain Rejoices With… Jackie Mason
Comedian Jackie Mason — former rabbi, self-proclaimed “ultimate Jew” and possessor of the world’s schmaltziest Borscht Belt accent — is topping the bill at Britain’s “Israel at 60” gala show at Wembley Arena. Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of the New North London Synagogue, for one, thinks he’s “a terrible choice.” Writing in Britain’s Jewish Chronicle, the…
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Espionage and its Apologists
Writing in San Francisco’s J. newspaper, Douglas Bloomfield, former chief legislative lobbyist for AIPAC, analyzes the circumstances surrounding the arrest of retired Army engineer Ben-Ami Kadish, who is accused of spying on the United States for Israel. Bloomfield zooms out and looks at the larger context, including the debate over long-imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard —…
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In Other Jewish Newspapers: Ben Stein Repels, Letter-Carriers vs. Israel, Prince Charles’s Tzedakah
FOUNDING FIREFIGHTERS: Connecticut’s Jewish Ledger explores the history of Lake Waubeeka, a summer community that was founded in 1950 by Ner Tormid, a fraternal organization of Jewish firefighters. The society’s name, the Ledger explains, was a misspelling of the Hebrew ner tamid, or “eternal flame.” Apparently, the firefighters were better at fighting flames than spelling…
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