Student government presidents at 71 predominantly Midwestern and Southern colleges have signed a statement inviting Israeli ambassador Michael Oren to their campuses — a response to recent protests against Oren’s presence at two coastal universities. The statement, which cites incidents at Brandeis University and the University of California, Irvine, was drafted by student body presidents…
It’s 2 p.m. on a Saturday in March when a large group of people rushes to the Dworzec Gdański railway station. They are not here to catch a train, though. “I saw you on the television this morning. You are doing that Jewish thing, right?” a lady in her early 60s says as she approaches…
Administration officials and Washington lawmakers indicated the United States is not willing to urge Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza, even as activists seek to highlight the issue after civilian deaths during Israel’s interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla. As the dust settled and shock over the bloody results of the mid-sea encounter on May…
A bipartisan group of 12 congressmen, including nine Jewish members, has called for a hearing into a bill that would allow litigants to make Holocaust-era insurance claims in U.S. courts. “This bill would help Holocaust survivors and heirs recover on policies sold by insurance companies to their families before World War II, but where benefits…
Having awarded nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in just four years to Jewish education, the Jim Joseph Foundation seems determined to remake the field through the power of its cash. In May, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and Yeshiva University became the most recent recipients of the foundation’s…
Barry Manilow Wows 92nd St. Y’s Spring Gala Crowd “Holy Mackerel! Congratulations! Tonight you have something no one else has — me!” an ebullient Barry Manilow told the 600-strong audience celebrating the 92nd Street Y’s spring gala, held at the Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall. “I’ve looked forward to this a whole year! I’m from Brooklyn…….
Jake Steirn’s bar mitzvah will take place in 2011, and his mother, Dawn, is thinking about the synagogue service, the trip to Israel and the wimpel. The wimpel, a decorated ritual cloth that binds Torah scrolls, has long been a tradition with Yekkes, Jews of German descent. The Steirns are not Yekke, but they are…
Attending the baby naming of his partner’s niece, Jeffrey Shandler was handed a video camera and asked to do the honors. Dutifully, he recorded the event. Then he returned to the house with the family and … promptly watched it. Why? Why do we videotape major events and, increasingly, minor ones? And what determines whether…
Inna Hecker refused to allow the printing of her husband’s works in Yiddish after his death in 1982, threatening everyone with lawsuits
This week on the Forward Reporters’ Roundtable, Josh Nathan-Kazis and Gal Beckerman discuss the rise of academic Israel studies programs, and the growing split between Israel studies and Middle East studies. They also look at the controversy over plans to build a Muslim community center near Ground Zero.
This article was originally published in the October 19, 2001 issue of the Forward. The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference By David Berger Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 195 pages, $29.50 For the past two millennia, Jews have powerfully resisted — often with their very lives — the Christian notion that…
