This week on the Forward Reporters’ Roundtable, reporter Josh Nathan-Kazis sits down with staff writer Gal Beckerman and arts and culture editor Dan Friedman to discuss the anniversary of an important milestone in the Soviet Jewry movement, and the efforts in Israel to rename Turkish coffee in the wake of the flotilla debacle.
Sholom Rubashkin won’t officially receive his sentence until tomorrow, but according to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, he will be receiving 27 years in a federal penitentiary without parole. That is two years more than federal prosecutors requested. The sentence was revealed in an order filed today by U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade. She wrote…
“That’s disgusting.” “But how can you be sure it’s safe” “I guess I won’t be eating that from now on.” I’ve received all of these reactions and more from friends when they’ve heard me explain that my wife and I make our own sourdough bread, yogurt and buttermilk. The products aren’t so distressing, but the…
Whether she meant to or not, 28-year-old Emily Gould has become something of a poster child for a life lived openly online. As an editor at the online magazine, Gawker, she documented the comings and goings of New York media elite, and on her personal blog, she wrote about dating, cheating and searching for love….
NEWS ITEM: Should gentiles be excluded from burial in Jewish communal cemeteries? The question is being debated among rabbis, some of whom complain that it’s difficult to find Jewish cemeteries that will bury intermarried congregants. May gentiles be with Jews interred? We all await the final word From rabbis who seem loath to state Opinions…
In an address at the recent board meeting of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie outlined in stark terms some of the greatest challenges facing the organization he has led for the past 14 years. Yoffie spoke of a Reform youth movement that is struggling, and of severe difficulties keeping young Jews involved….
Jewish groups, working with congressional leaders, are pressing to designate one of the main organizers of the humanitarian flotilla that sought to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza as a terrorist group. With a boost from Senate leaders, the Jewish groups are lobbying the administration to sanction Insani Yardım Vakfı, the nonprofit sponsor of the ship…
“Hey, lady!” yelled the bus driver. He was loud but friendly. “You forgot your Psalms booklet.” It was a typical weekday afternoon in Tel Aviv, Israel’s secular metropolis, and the Route 322 bus is picking up its first passengers as it gets going to Ashdod. On this particular 322, the driver, a jolly middle-aged man…
You know you’ve arrived in Sderot because you turn from the dusty highway onto a city street bordered by a thin roadside park with new decorations and beautifully manicured lawns. Three years ago this park was a dump, but donations from Jewish National Fund groups — like the one holding a ceremony in the park,…
The University of California, Irvine has taken a step toward suspending a Muslim student organization over it says was the group’s role in orchestrating the disruption of a campus speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. A disciplinary report by a university administrator recommended that U.C. Irvine’s Muslim Student Union be suspended for a full year….
An e-mail inbox flooded with hate mail and death threats might force some people to consider a career change, but Rabbi David Nesenoff sees it as an opportunity. Nesenoff, of Stony Brook, N.Y., was caught in a media whirlwind after capturing on video longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas telling Jews to “get the hell…
