Hours before entering the White House for a meeting with President Barack Obama, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the podium at the General Assembly of Jewish federations to send a message to Obama, the Palestinians and the entire world. Israel, according to Netanyahu, seeks an immediate resumption of peace talks. “Let’s move,” Netanyahu said….
Recently, my children and I were standing in line to order at a restaurant. A boy was standing behind us with another man by him. The boy noticed my son, who was around the same age, and stood next to him. Then the boy asked me, “Can we sit with you for dinner?” I paused…
NEW YORK WOMEN’S FOUNDATION IMPROVES WOMEN’S LIVES AND OFFERS HOPE “We can’t promote human rights abroad unless we can defend human rights at home,” author and journalist Sheryl WuDunn said at the October 14 New York Women’s Foundation dinner at Gotham Hall. The dinner honored her and her husband (via video), New York Times correspondent…
New York’s Jews overwhelmingly voted to re-elect Michael Bloomberg to a third term in the citywide elections for mayor on Tuesday. According to exit polls, 75% of Jews voted for Bloomberg, a Republican-endorsed Independent candidate, while only 22% chose his Democratic opponent, City Comptroller Bill Thompson. Bloomberg achieved the same level of support during his…
Despite notable gains for women in the past year, a Forward survey of 75 major American Jewish communal organizations found that fewer than one in six are run by women, and those women are paid 61 cents to every dollar earned by male leaders. The numbers are especially striking when compared with the overall composition…
Relations between Washington and Jerusalem are warming, as months-long tensions over West Bank settlements and other issues have gradually eased. Israeli officials and Jewish communal leaders point to a series of events, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s praise of Israel’s movement on the settlement issue, and President Obama’s upcoming speech at the General…
When Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google and now the 26th richest man in the world, left the Soviet Union as a 6-year-old Jewish refugee in 1979, it was the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society that secured American visas for him and for his family and settled everyone into a new home. What HIAS did for Brin,…
The death of Claude Lévi-Strauss October 30 in Paris at age 100 closed an epoch in anthropology. His name was synonymous with structuralism, the dominant theory of culture in the late 20th century, and his mind and work were emblematic of French intellectual life at its most grand. Like Emile Durkheim, the great sociologist whose…
Robin Nafshi has always loved animals. And she’s always loved Judaism. But until recently, the Reform rabbi thought that never the twain shall meet. All that’s changed, though, as Nafshi, president of a new kind of animal sanctuary in New Jersey, is creating avenues for animal-loving Jews to connect their faith with their furry friends….
The oldest Ashkenazic synagogue in the English-speaking world, built in Plymouth, England, in 1762, plans to auction its rare collection of religious ornaments. It’s a move that has drawn criticism from a heritage group about the wisdom of selling the family silver. Up for sale will be a pair of crown-surmounted rimmonim, the decorative finials…
The umbrella organization for Jewish community federations seems to have the stars aligned for a fresh start: a new name, a bright logo and an A-list lineup of speakers, including President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at its annual General Assembly, which will take place in Washington from November 8-10. But the…
