Israeli activists pushing for revenues from newly discovered offshore energy deposits to be spent on social needs have won a significant victory. A state-appointed committee is recommending that the Israeli government more than double its share of any profits from the country’s energy finds. “The committee has set a new standard — it recognized that…
It’s during this time of year that I live in a mixed marriage. I love Christmas carols; my husband hates them. I go around whistling them; he runs out of the drug store when they’re playing. I feel cheery and expansive; he feels hunted and haunted. I guess that explains why he never joins me…
A proud and joyous freshman Class of 2010 made its way to Washington on Sunday for the traditional new congressmen orientation. They got to see the chambers, have their pictures taken and get a sense of the place that will be their temporary home, beginning January. Among the newcomers was Randy Altschuler, the Jewish Republican…
The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and it’s now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging. Papers filed in the civil lawsuit of former lobbyist Steve Rosen against his previous employers at the American Israel…
Nicole Krauss is having banner year. The author of the novels “The History of Love” (W. W. Norton & Company, 2006) and “Man Walks into a Room” (Anchor, 2003) was named one of the New Yorker’s 20 under 40 fiction writers and her new novel, “Great House,” came out the same month it was nominated…
There was an enormous covered tent within clanging distance of the unclangable Liberty Bell. There was gourmet, kosher rack of lamb and beet salad with salmon mousse. There were politicians, and there were big-deal donors. Oh, and did we mention Babs? Barbra Streisand had come to Philadelphia for a November 13 gala, marking the opening…
Glenn Beck’s controversial comments about philanthropist George Soros; what is likely to be the last trial of alleged Nazi guard John Demjanjuk; and the rising profile of Jewish Voice for Peace are the topics of this week’s Reporters’ Roundtable. Forward contributor A.J. Goldmann and senior columnist J.J. Goldberg join host Josh Nathan-Kazis. Subscribe to Forward…
An anonymous donor has offered $20 million to Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue to enable it to complete construction on its new building just one month after cost overruns had threatened to abort the project in midstream. The congregation—an iconic symbol of Modern Orthodoxy in New York and nationally—faced a $19.5 million funding gap. “We feel…
A day after the seven-hour meeting between Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in New York, one of the Obama administration’s top Middle East hands, Dan Shapiro, was sent to brief Jewish leaders on where things stand. It was a classic Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell conference call this morning. It was billed…
Updated, November 17, 2010, 5 p.m. The storied career of an indomitable ultra-Orthodox political fixer appears to have entered its final phase with the conviction of Rabbi Milton Balkany, known to the press as the “Brooklyn Bundler.” Balkany was found guilty November 10 of attempting to extort $4 million from Steven A. Cohen, a hedge…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wrapping up his U.S. tour, which began with Jewish leftists heckling him this week at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America, and went on to a nasty exchange of statements with the Obama administration over Israel’s building plans in East Jerusalem. But it was also…
