I was raised Jewish in a suburb outside Atlanta. Being Jewish in the South during the 1980s and ’90s was such a difficult task. It left me sympathetic to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and how he must have felt while being ostracized and excluded from all the “reindeer games.” I myself was never invited to…
Harvey Pollack was home from the service for only a few months when Bob Geasey, the public and sports information director at Temple University, from which Harvey had graduated with a degree in journalism, asked for some help keeping statistics for a few college basketball games at Philadelphia’s old Convention Hall. It was 1946, and…
With the tragic passing of Richard Holbrooke, the world has lost a man who devoted his life to resolving intractable conflicts; our nation has lost the premier diplomat of his era in the midst of one of his most challenging assignments as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan; and I have lost a dear friend…
Among the many enigmas that have surrounded Henry Kissinger over the years is the question of how he, a German Jew, managed to survive in the Nixon White House, a place where he was called “Jew boy” to his face. Now, with the release of a new batch of Nixon tapes, revealing more of the…
Bernie Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont, has been involved in politics for more than three decades. He rarely claims the spotlight — but last week Sanders garnered national attention, as he took to the floor of the Senate to speak against the compromise tax deal President Obama brokered with Republican lawmen. And he spoke,…
What’s a nice Jewish boy doing giving Santa Claus tours in New York City? That question can be posed to Jared Goldstein, an ebullient East Village resident who in recent years has led visitors around the city on many kinds of tours. “Somebody’s got to do it,” Goldstein said while describing his Santa tours, entertaining…
A tug-of-war is taking place over the government’s attempt to impose a core curriculum in ultra-Orthodox elementary and high schools, and it’s not just about education. It cuts to the heart of a bitter conflict within Israeli society on the issue of authority. Israel’s Education Ministry has launched a zero-tolerance policy toward Haredi schools that…
The Twersky family tree has more than 25,000 names on it, and stretches back to the early 1700s, in the town of Chernobyl. The family not only boasts a legacy as a Hasidic dynasty — with the exception of a handful of Hasidic groups from Hungary, almost all Hasidic sects can trace their lineage to…
The Forward’s second annual survey of salaries in the Jewish communal workforce, and how the Jewish chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is approaching Internet regulation are the topics of this week’s Reporters’ Roundtable. Editor Jane Eisner and reporter Joy Resmovits join host Josh Nathan-Kazis. Subscribe to Forward podcasts on iTunes
As the Obama administration gets ready to roll out new ideas meant to overcome the deadlock in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, the Saban Center at the Brookings Institute on Thursday presented a set of three public opinion surveys that can help President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton better understand what the people in the region…
With reporting by Maia Efrem and Devra Ferst. The Forward’s second annual survey of 74 major Jewish national organizations found that in the past year, women lost ground in leadership, continued to lag behind men in pay and did not experience the same increases in salary that a majority of the men enjoyed despite these…
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט
