In Israel, the most famous name charged with espionage for leaking classified information was nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu, who spent 18 years in prison for providing a British newspaper with information and photos of the Israeli nuclear reactor in Dimona. That is, until Anat Kamm. The 23-year-old former Israel Defense Forces soldier, set to go…
It is easy to walk past the stretch of orange construction fencing outside Barzilai Medical Center in the coastal city of Ashkelon without batting an eyelid. But the site marks the epicenter of a saga of politics, war and religion that could destabilize the Israeli government. Behind this fencing lies an ancient cemetery, unwittingly discovered…
When Yuri Foreman meets Miguel Cotto at Yankee Stadium this June, boxers representing two of New York’s largest ethnic groups will face off in a fight sure to excite Jewish and Puerto Rican fans. Foreman will be defending a World Boxing Association super welterweight championship belt that he won last year — a victory that…
The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee By Sarah Silverman HarperCollins, 256pp, $20 Jewish comics are usually thought of as self-deprecating Woody Allen types whose singsong shtick hearkens back to the Borscht Belt. Sarah Silverman is not that kind of Jewish comic. Neither schlemiel nor schlimazel, Silverman instead plays the part of a cocky…
The annual meeting of the American Economic Association might not seem like the best place to go for a laugh. But at the organization’s 2009 gathering, Yoram Bauman, a skinny, bespectacled young economist from Seattle, had his fellow academics practically rolling in the aisles. “Shortly before the election, I did a gig in Wichita,” he…
Jewish representation in the Supreme Court could reach a historic high following the April 9 announcement of Justice John Paul Stevens’s retirement. Two of the three leading candidates to succeed Stevens are Jewish jurists: Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Judge Merrick Garland. Currently, two of the nine Supreme Court members, justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and…
Jewish Identity in France Center Stage at French Consulate Dialogue The French Consulate’s wall-size 18th-century Gobelins tapestry depicting the Story of Esther was an apt backdrop for the March 24 dialogue “Evolutions of Jewish Communities in France and the United States,” hosted by France’s consul general, Philippe Lalliot. Historic and modern-day antisemitism, and the large…
This week on the Forward podcast, editor Jane Eisner provides a look at what’s in the April 16 issue of the Forward, Allison Gaudet Yarrow sits down with writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret and Jeremiah Lockwood performs the second installment of his Nigun Project, alongside Brian Chase of the “Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs.” Subscribe to the…
The other day, my son Jeremy discovered an unopened birthday present in his closet. It was a Kinex Ferris wheel building set. We took out all parts, and I was instantly overwhelmed. The game had 25 pages of assembly instructions! Despite my reservations, we started putting it together. The process was inordinately complicated. Although the…
As another set of sanctions against Iran makes its way through the United Nations — the fourth in as many years — heads of American Jewish organizations and pro-Israel foreign policy analysts are wondering if these or any other measures will really be able to change the behavior of the regime in Tehran. In conversations…
The story on page one of Israel’s largest daily formed a graphic that was a conversation stopper: columns of print that looked like a series of vertical piano keyboards with thick, irregularly spaced black keys, and a large headline that read, “Israel’s Censorship Scandal.” The article sought to tell the story of Anat Kamm, 23,…
