A former associate in the New York office of one of the world’s largest law firms has sued his old employer, claiming he was harassed, and ultimately fired, for observing the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. Norman David Schoenfeld filed a complaint in federal court last month against Allen & Overy, a London-based firm that, according…
A NEW ARCHITECTURAL FACE FOR THE KAUFMAN CENTER The details of the eight-month, $17 million renovation of the Kaufman Center — located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and home to the Merkin Concert Hall — by the New York firm Robert A.M. Stern Architects are daunting. What I can say of its January 8 mazel…
A passport crisis is forcing hundreds of American citizens living in Israel to cancel travel plans to the United States. Since the summer, the American consulate in Jerusalem and the American embassy in Tel Aviv have ceased providing services to all visitors except those who have managed to schedule an appointment, resulting in an average…
Free to play the very latest educational computer games on state-of-the-art laptops, the 33 children at Eshel kindergarten would appear to be some of the luckiest around. With Eshel’s teachers able to use a townwide wireless network to plan programs using all the resources the Internet has to offer, the school is among the most…
In 2002, an unknown young writer named Jonathan Safran Foer published his first novel, “Everything Is Illuminated.” The book, a fictionalized account of a young man’s search for his grandfather’s Ukrainian shtetl, was released to wild critical acclaim, propelling the title to the top of best-seller lists and its author to instant literary fame. Less…
I never had the religious identity crisis that strikes so many Jewish adolescents and young adults. Never, that is, until last year, when my great-grandparents were disinterred from their graves and summarily dismissed from a Jewish cemetery. The saga started when my great-uncle Bobby died in March, just before his 88th birthday. His will stated…
When a Torah scroll is so faded or damaged that it can no longer be used, Jewish law states that, like the dearly departed, it is to be buried. But Spiritual Artifacts, a California-based company, hopes to bring new life to presumed-dead Torahs by putting them on display for all to see and offering them…
The 12th annual New York Sephardic Film Festival explores Sephardic Jewry, focusing on such themes as intergenerational relationships, music, Bourekas movies (a genre popular in Israel in the 1960s and ’70s) and the 60th anniversary of Israel. The festival also highlights the Italian Jewish experience. The weeklong program includes the American premieres of Ehud Tomalak’s…
Hours after former Senator John Edwards announced his exit from the presidential race, one of his most prominent Jewish fundraisers is backing Senator Barack Obama, the Forward has exclusively learned. Speaking this morning, Fort Lauderdale lawyer Mitchell Berger said the decision had been an easy one. “They are the two candidates who represent real change,”…
SHELDON AND MIRIAM ADELSON HONORED BY BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL Casino mogul billionaire Sheldon Adelson may be ranked as the third richest American by Forbes 400 — behind Warren Buffett and Bill Gates — but at the December 11 Birthright Israel Foundation dinner, which honored him and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, he was, as they say…
Washington – Congressional efforts to impose new, tougher sanctions on Iran are stumbling after the publication last week of a report questioning the effectiveness of American sanctions. The report, compiled by the Government Accountability Office — the investigative arm of Congress — argues that despite 20 years of American sanctions, Iran’s economic indicators remain strong….
