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
-
Community Finds New Life in Castro-less Cuba
Havana, Cuba – During the High Holy Days this year, an unlikely community is celebrating not just the start of a new year but also the beginning of a new era. At Rosh Hashanah services last week at Havana’s Beth Shalom synagogue, a record crowd of 200 people was in attendance, with children running in…
-
Wave of Violence Hits North Africa as Terrorists Take to Surfing the Web
Rabat, Morocco – Last month Hicham Doukkali packed a gas canister with explosives and blew himself up next to a bus full of tourists in the imperial city of Meknes. No one was hurt besides Doukkali, who lost an arm, but the attack was particularly troubling nonetheless. Doukkali was not a young discontent from the…
-
New Jersey Rabbi Aims for Pulpit on Capitol Hill
American rabbis are routinely sent to weddings and funerals and fundraisers galore, but in 2008, one of them is asking to be sent where none has gone before: Congress. In a long-shot bid to oust one of New Jersey’s most conservative Republicans, Rabbi Dennis Shulman announced last Tuesday the formation of a congressional exploratory campaign…
The Latest
-
Indictments Hit Prominent Crown Heights Family
Two members of an influential family in Brooklyn’s Chabad-Lubavitch community were arrested this week after being indicted by a federal grand jury. The indictment from the U.S. attorney in Philadelphia charges Moshe Rubashkin with leaving hazardous waste at a textile plant in Allentown, Pa. Rubashkin is a communal leader in the Crown Heights neighborhood of…
-
Bush’s Justice Dept. Pick Is Orthodox Jew
To those who know him, retired federal judge Michael Mukasey, an Orthodox Jew and political conservative, is a jurist who kept his politics and religion out of the courtroom. That’s in marked contrast to his predecessor, the scandal-plagued Alberto Gonzales, who resigned this month despite President Bush’s best efforts to retain him. Gonzales’s tenure was…
-
Judges Rule Against Slain Activist’s Family
In a decision that dealt a sharp blow to the family of slain peace activist Rachel Corrie, a federal appeals panel ruled this week that Caterpillar Inc. cannot be held legally responsible for the use of its bulldozers by the Israeli government in the Palestinian territories. A three-judge panel in the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit…
-
Holiday Treats
Those who’d rather avoid the kitchen can purchase holiday sweets from The Chocolate Girl, a kosher candy shop recently opened in Brooklyn’s Park Slope. Owner Tziporah Avigayil Jaeger is making etrog jelly-filled chocolates for Sukkot. I’m “trying to draw on the holiday. This is something that captures [its] essence,” said Jaeger, an Orthodox Jew and…
-
Historic Community Celebrates Its Past
You know you’re in for it when you’re still in New Jersey but you’re not on the map. The highway gave way to smaller streets with curious names: Gershal Avenue turned onto Eppinger, then Rosenfeldt, Shiff Avenue, then Isaacs, and, as Norma, N.J., gave way to Alliance, gave way to Brotmanville, there was narrow Brotman…
-
The Joys of Sukkot
Sukkot gets a raw deal. So many marketing opportunities left on the table! You got your plagues masks for Passover, your chocolate gelt and cloying ceramic ballerina menorahs for Hanukkah, your hamantaschen for Purim. But where are the adorable sukkah dollhouses with Velcro branches and hanging fruit? Where’s the make-your-own-garlands craft kit? Why isn’t every…
-
Stylish Sukkahs
If you can’t go to Jerusalem for Sukkot, try the next best thing: Bring the Holy City to your own backyard. A Kotel-inspired sukkah, created by the company Designer Sukkahs by Oorah, features an exterior evocative of the Western Wall, made with heat- and cold-resistant material and galvanized metal. The sukkah features a window flap…
-
Shelter From the Storm
“It is a joy to live in one’s own house.” —Yerushalami Talmud, Moed Katan, 2.4 Given that the damage unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent breach of the levees was of biblical proportions, it should come as no surprise that the storm gave all New Orleanians an entree into the Jewish historical experience. Though…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
- 2
Opinion As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here’s what changed my mind
- 3
News In a first, Orthodox rabbinical school ordains an out gay rabbi
- 4
Fast Forward From Shabbat dinners to ‘Talmudic discourse’: Jewish women killed in NYC shooting leave legacies of faith and family
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Andrew Cuomo criticizes Israel — or does he?
-
Fast Forward What does the Star of David represent? A new ruling offers a legal answer
-
BINTEL BRIEF I prepare bodies as part of my synagogue’s burial society, but I’m an anti-Zionist. Is that OK?
-
Books Amid the terror of war in Ukraine, a stirring debut novel demonstrates the power of love and art
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
