Under the klieg lights, American officials calmly repeated their opposition to key policies of Israel’s current government. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu snorted defiance in the face of the American warnings. And nothing appeared to change. But as high-profile leadership meetings and major policy speeches fixated the public during the annual conference of American Jewry’s primary…
It was late 2008, and if ever the country seemed primed for a revived outbreak of the populist formula equating Wall Street with Jews and both of these with evil, this was a moment when the stars were aligned in malignant confluence. Lehman Brothers, the venerable investment bank with a notably Jewish history, was the…
UPDATE: U.C. Berkeley’s student body president has vetoed the divestment bill. Read an updated version of this story here. In a rare campus victory for proponents of divestment efforts targeting Israel, the student senate at the University of California, Berkeley approved a resolution calling on the school to divest from corporations deemed to support the…
The name Dan Senor triggers two associations in the minds of those people who have heard of him at all. For some, he will forever be the spinmeister responsible for selling the early years of the occupation of Iraq as a rosy time — even as bombs exploded daily and sectarian violence ripped apart the…
In the coming weeks, some 120 million Americans will fill out their U.S. Census forms, providing the government with information that will be used to track demographic trends and to direct funding where it’s needed. But this time, unlike during three of the last four decennial U.S. Census cycles, there will be no parallel nationwide…
Bob Balaban Honored at East Hampton Guild Hall Academy of the Arts Gala The Guild Hall of East Hampton 25th Anniversary Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards dinner on March 8 was a Hamptons-haimish, inside-joke kind of evening. Performing Arts Lifetime Achievement award recipient Bob Balaban described the academy’s arts committee as being “like…
David Grossman is a leading Israeli novelist and an outspoken peace activist. His works have been translated into 25 languages, and his novels “An Intimate Grammar” and “See Under: Love” were named two of the most important books since the creation of the State of Israel by the Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature….
Homesick By Eshkol Nevo, translated by Sondra Silverston Dalkey Archive Press, 384 pages, $15.95 Ahead of the publication of “Homesick” in the United States, Israeli novelist Eshkol Nevo is in a contemplative mood. Talking about his books abroad affords him the opportunity to “look at one’s county from the outside.” The natural instinct, to be…
Out here in Northern California during the winter months, Meyer Lemons are dripping off the trees like perfect golden globes. You can recognize a Meyer Lemon tree from far away because their coloring is such a strong and deep shade of yellow and the smell of their blossoms is pungent and plentiful. Currently, my house…
I hosted a St. Patrick’s Day dinner party last week. We drank a lot of beer, but I still have plenty left that I’d like to use up before Passover (Michelle, I accept your cupboard cleaning challenge). There are many wonderful uses for beer (like Guinness Braised London Broil), but my current favorite is beer…
Listen to the March 26th edition of the Forward’s weekly podcast:
