Haifa, Israel – In a move that is being condemned for its effect on the already fragile relations between Israel and its Arab minority, right-wing lawmakers are trying to strip Arabic of its status alongside Hebrew as an official language of the state. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Hebrew and Arabic have been…
The recent announcement that mega-philanthropist Michael Steinhardt is backing an effort to bring a Hebrew-language charter school to New York — together with talk of a possible national network of similar institutions — seems certain to revive debates about whether such schools violate the separation of church and state. But the proposal raises a second,…
A recent flurry of signals from Al Qaeda leaders has fueled concerns among terrorism experts that Al Qaeda could be setting up to launch an attack on Israel. The worries about an impending attack actually grow out of the apparent struggles of the terrorist network, visible in mounting criticism from former members and leading Muslim…
When he was a cadet at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the early 1970s, Norton Schwartz did not hide his religion under his blue-and-white uniform. A member of the academy’s Jewish choir before graduating in 1973, according to one of his classmates, Schwartz has since risen up the ranks and on…
Los Angeles – In honor of his 13th birthday, Jake Himelfarb found a distinctly Jewish way to celebrate: He took his two best friends to see the new Adam Sandler comedy, “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” when it opened on June 6. Himelfarb, a Los Angeles native, wasn’t the only Jewish teenager — let…
As the general election campaign gets under way, some Jewish liberals say they are working to ensure that 2008 doesn’t go down in history as the year that Barack Obama got “schvitz-boated.” A small, grass-roots-powered group of Jewish Democrats called Jews for Obama is quietly rolling out an independent campaign to bolster its party’s presumptive…
Washington – To the many challenges facing the fledgling Iraqi government, Congress may soon add this: Recognize the State of Israel and establish diplomatic ties with Jerusalem, or else risk losing some of the billions in aid that Baghdad receives from the United States. A nonbinding resolution demanding Iraqi recognition of Israel was introduced June…
Washington – A fledgling European pro-Israel advocacy group is looking to American Jewish donors to jumpstart low-profile efforts at empowering local leaders. The head of the year-old European Leadership Network was in Washington earlier this month for the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. But while it was a return home of…
Funding is running out for one of the signature issues of the Jewish community, as the coffers that feed thousands of Ethiopians hoping to immigrate to Israel are nearly empty. Early this month, United Jewish Communities, the umbrella organization for North American federations, revealed that it had run out of funds to provide food aid…
Just weeks after the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse made national news for problems with its workers, a kosher food distributor in Brooklyn has become caught up in an escalating dispute with its employees. Flaum Appetizing fired nearly half its 45 employees May 28. According to Alvin Blyer, the Brooklyn regional director of the National Labor…
I first learned about this marvelous newspaper 30 years ago, when I was a college student studying Jewish immigrant life on the Lower East Side of New York. As a budding journalist, I was captivated by the essential civic and cultural role played by the Forward, and by the power and creativity of its founding…
