The 18 men praying together early on a recent Friday morning, wrapped in tefillin and tallitot, didn’t exactly look like squatters. Their Orthodox synagogue, in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn, also seemed fairly permanent. A hulking, wooden ark sat against one wall. Bookshelves filled with religious texts covered another. A blue velvet clothwith the…
There has been a flurry of obituaries and appreciations of Irving Kristol in recent days. And rightly so. Whether you admire his conservative ideas or loathe them, his mark on American politics is undeniable. He was, simply put, a key architect of the conservative revolution of the 1970s and 1980s that altered the Republican Party,…
As the members of Temple Beth El in Lexington, Miss., pray this Yom Kippur for inclusion in the Book of Life, they’ll be attending a funeral of sorts. The Ne’ilah, the day’s traditional closing service, will be the last scheduled worship to be held in their 104-year-old white wooden synagogue. “Our last regular service had…
Americans may be bowling alone, but they talk incessantly about community. Few words seemed more overused and less applicable to American life than this one. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the dilution of the collective underpinnings of Jewish collectiveness and the increasing usage of the word “community.” When soccer moms studying kabbalistic…
Building a sukkah is serious business. It takes brawn and wit and a steady hammer. It takes dedication and a keen eye for design. After all, a sukkah is a sacred shelter — as mythic as a treehouse and as inviting as a dining room table. It is a place to stargaze, to spend time…
This month Keren Ann finished producing the second album of French actress and singer Emmanuelle Seigner, who is married to Roman Polanski. When Iggy Pop, who appeared on the album as a guest, asked why she had moved to Tel Aviv, she had an answer ready: “For love. What other reason do I have?” The…
Israeli and American diplomats came to the United Nations not to praise the Goldstone Report, but to bury it. And unlike Marc Antony in his eulogy for Julius Caesar, they meant it. As a result of their efforts, it appears all but certain that the report accusing Israel and the Palestinian faction Hamas of war…
The recent return of Honduras’s ousted and expelled president to his country is not an issue in which the Jewish stakes are clear or obvious. But Jewish groups are nonetheless taking sides over the turmoil roiling the Central American country and over the Obama administration’s stand on developments there. On September 4, two weeks before…
Laurie Sandell, grew up listening to her father tell dazzling tales about his wartime heroism and his friendship with Henry Kissinger— only to find out, as an adult, that those stories were pure fiction. She recently sat down with the Forward’s arts and culture editor, Dan Friedman, to discuss that shocking discovery, which she details…
As world leaders converge on New York for the annual opening of the United Nations’ new session, Jewish groups that have in years past protested the Tehran regime are seeking to broaden their coalition to include many additional groups that share grievances against Iran. The new strategy is reflected in full-page advertisements the Jewish-led coalition…
Four months after putting out a video commemorating the Persian New Year, or Norwuz, President Barack Obama is extending New Year’s wishes to the Jewish community in this video, posted on the the White House Web site Thursday:
דער שוועדישער פֿאַרלעגער ניקאָלײַ אָלניאַנסקי האָט דערציילט ווי ער האָט אָנגעהויבן אַרויסגעבן קינדערביכלעך אויף ייִדיש.
