For 125 years, the Forward has delivered accurate, timely and nuanced news to American Jews. From breaking news to in-depth investigations, our reporting team covers the people, institutions and issues that define the many ways to be Jewish in the…
News
-
Rabbi To Give Invocation on Obama’s Big Day
Washington — Presidential historians and convention observers believe this year’s Democratic convention will be the first time that a rabbi gives an invocation before the presidential nominee’s acceptance speech since the advent of modern American political conventions nearly a century ago. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, will be…
-
Last Call for Landsmanschaften? Aid Societies Fold as Old-Country Ties Fade
For the members of a century-old Jewish fraternal society, the organization’s breakup has literally turned into a fight over graves. The Rohatyner Young Men’s Society is one of the last of the landsmanschaften, benefit societies formed at the turn of the past century by groups of townsfolk who had emigrated from Eastern Europe. Thousands of…
-
Rehab Programs Counter Substance Abuse With an Infusion of Judaism
Los Angeles — Four recovering addicts celebrated their sobriety “birthdays” on a recent Friday, in keeping with an Alcoholics Anonymous tradition. But the celebration occurred during a Sabbath service, and the prayer expressing gratitude for recovery from addiction was recited alongside the Shema. The venue was Beit T’Shuvah, so far the country’s only Jewish residential…
The Latest
-
Leader’s Exit Muddies Diplomatic Picture
Three years ago, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf came to New York, shook then Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon’s hand and delivered a keynote address to an American Jewish group, fueling hope that the second largest Muslim country in the world and the Jewish state were on their way to establishing formal relations. Last week, Musharraf…
-
Berkeley JCC Cuts Staff by Half, Amid Money Woes
Los Angeles — With financial woes having already decimated the ranks of Southern California’s Jewish community centers, the crisis has moved northward. The JCC of the East Bay, located in Berkeley, Calif., is in the midst of crippling financial woes that in recent weeks have forced layoffs of half its staff. While the JCC —…
-
Denver 2008: Boosters, Power Brokers and Money Men — the Behind the Scenes Players
On his path to the Democratic convention, Barack Obama had a complicated push-and-pull relationship with the Jewish community. When he was an upstart politician in Chicago, local Jews were some of his earliest supporters, and Obama likes to tell Jewish audiences that in some of his early races, he was criticized for being too close…
-
The Hamptons Round-Up
FROM THE MOUTHS OF PRESIDENTS WHOSE WRITERS’ WORDS MAKE HISTORY “Why speechwriters?” posited Robert Schlesinger, U.S. News & World Report opinion deputy assistant managing editor and author of the recent book “White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters” (Simon & Schuster), to the select gathering at the July 15 reception at the Roosevelt House Public…
-
Comfort (Food) on 2nd Avenue
Sue me, I’m a little late to the “Yay, the 2nd Avenue Deli is back!” party. But yay, the 2nd Avenue Deli is back! Party! Everyone knows the story. The 2nd Avenue Deli opened in 1954. The pastrami and corned beef were sublime. The place shut in 2005 after a rent dispute. Last year, when…
-
Medical Meltdown: A Memoir
At the age of 12, Jennifer Traig was convinced she was dying of breast cancer. Certain that she was suffering from her first heart attack, at age 18, Traig had diagnosed herself with countless diseases, including meningitis, lupus and multiple sclerosis, before she had even graduated from college. In her brazen memoir, “Well Enough Alone:…
-
Truth in Comic Quips
Growing up in a sleepy town in Connecticut, writer Esther Cohen learned from her family the art of conversation as a competitive sport. “The main leisure activities they did were eating and talking,” Cohen told the Forward. “So those are the two things I pretty much know how to do.” In her new book “Don’t…
-
Government Aid For Liberal Shuls Breaks Orthodox Israeli Monopoly
Modi’in, Israel — Israel’s Reform and Conservative movements have been allotted government land for synagogue construction, marking the first time in the Jewish state’s history that the Orthodox monopoly on public support for prayer facilities has been broken. These movements are heralding the development as far more than a financial coup: They describe it as…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Bob Dylan warned us about guys like Stephen Miller
- 2
Fast Forward The judge in Maduro’s case is an Orthodox Jew — and displays a Torah verse in his chambers
- 3
Opinion The ICE shooting in Minneapolis shattered my Holocaust survivor father’s American dream
- 4
News He stormed the Capitol wearing a Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt 5 years ago. Where is he now?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Mamdani denounces Hamas chants, but his delay draws scrutiny
-
Fast Forward Fire at Mississippi’s largest synagogue under federal investigation after arrest
-
Opinion An arsonist torched a Mississippi synagogue. It feels hauntingly familiar.
-
Fast Forward Can Breads Bakery workers really demand that the Israeli owners cut ties with Israel? Labor experts weigh in.
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
