Seventy years after the S.S. St. Louis was turned away from the United States, the surviving passengers of the ill-fated voyage may be reuniting for the last time, near the place where their chance at freedom was denied. Thirty-three of the 75 survivors — ranging in age from 71 to 91 and coming from more…
The Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Horowitz, the first American-born Hasidic leader, died December 5. He never fully recovered from a heart attack that he suffered during the summer. He was 88. Horowitz was born in Boston and led his family’s Hasidic dynasty from 1944. He began splitting his time between Boston and Israel after…
The excellent work done this year by the Forward staff, in print and online, has been recognized in a big way by two respected organizations. The Forward took home five awards — known as Ippies — at the recent annual dinner of the New York Community Media Alliance, which represents ethnic and community media in…
Yochanan Muffs, a scholar of Bible, law and Semitic languages whose books illuminated the legal and social meaning of emotions such as love and joy in the lives of Jews in antiquity, succumbed to Parkinson’s disease on December 6. Muffs, professor emeritus of Bible and Jewish thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York,…
NEWS ITEM: Golf-champ Tiger Woods has apologized for “transgressions” against his wife and family. He issued this comment after causing an early-morning auto mishap outside his mansion. Meanwhile, new reports of extra-marital affairs continue to circulate. His feats are part of golfing lore! His fans just love to see him score! Did he engage, to…
Abel Kiviat, National Champion: Twentieth-Century Track & Field and the Melting Pot By Alan S. Katchen Syracuse University Press, 320 pages, $34.95 Saturday, June 14, 1924: Abel Kiviat twists his ankle on a barrier during the Olympic trials in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at Harvard Stadium, falling flat on his face. Then and there, the future…
When I was younger, I felt physical pain at getting my hair cut. I hated leaning my head back under hot water and feeling rough hands scratch at my scalp, taking something from me that was mine. Many spiritual and religious traditions view hair as a retainer of one’s vital essence. Rastafarians consider hair their…
It’s latke season, which also means it’s time to buy applesauce, dig out the applesauce you made in the fall, or make some from scratch now. This simple recipe fills up the house with a delicious aroma of cinnamon, and can easily be frozen in plastic or glass freezer containers to enjoy throughout the winter….
When the first openly gay rabbinic students came through the doors of Conservative Judaism’s Jewish Theological Seminary in 2007, there remained in the back of everyone’s mind one sensitive, still-unresolved issue: What would happen when they went to Israel? All understood that their curriculum, like that of all JTS rabbinic students, would include a third…
Writer Charles London recently spent a year, traveling to far-flung Jewish communities abroad — from Rangoon, Burma to Esfahan, Iran — as well as to two vibrant communities in the American South and, ultimately, to Israel. He recounts the journey in his new book, “Far From Zion: In Search of a Global Jewish Community” (William…
This past weekend, my family and I went out to eat at a restaurant. We happened to sit near a television showing a wrestling match. The two wrestlers were locked in a hold. One of the wrestlers wore blue shorts; the other wore red shorts. “Go blue!” My 5-year-old son Jeremy cheered. “Why are you…
