United Nations – When he was elected secretary general of the United Nations last fall, Ban Ki-moon struck veteran Middle East hands as having a rather limited grasp on the volatile region. But less than a year into office, the former foreign minister of South Korea has raised more than a few eyebrows at the…
For the better part of four decades, theoretical physicists Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg proved that science can bridge cultural divides. When they won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1979, their children danced together in Stockholm, and the Pakistani Muslim and the American Jew stayed friends until Salam’s death in 1996. It was only…
Montreal – The 90,000-strong Montreal Jewish community, long a dependable source of votes and cash for Quebec’s ruling Liberal Party, is suddenly putting its political allegiance up for grabs. A dozen of the community’s major political fundraisers, unhappy with Liberal Premier Jean Charest over a host of issues large and small, recently had dinner with…
Washington – Last week, when a congressional committee rejected a bid to provide $10 million for a Palestinian children’s program, something unusual happened: nothing. In the past, such bills have been urged along by Palestinian lobbyists in Washington. But this time around, congressional staffers said that there was no effort on behalf of the Palestinians…
The Media War The street fighting in Gaza abated last week, but Hamas and Fatah are still battling it out online and over the airwaves for the hearts and minds of Palestinians. “There are two stories: the Fatah story and the Hamas story,” said Nasser Laham, the frazzled chief editor of the independent Ma’an Network…
What do Nazi Germany, urban redevelopment and the specter of eminent domain in America’s largest border city have to do with one another? On the surface, it would seem, not very much. But in El Paso, Texas, where a political dispute over a proposed downtown redevelopment plan has spilled over into the ranks of the…
One of the first Jewish institutions to be established in post-Soviet Russia may have to shut its doors at the end of this year, due to a struggle with one of America’s largest Jewish charities. The Jewish Community Center of St. Petersburg received a letter last month from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, known…
Dozens of Holocaust survivors gathered Monday for a town hall meeting in Florida to voice their anger over the way a set of Holocaust archives is being handled by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The archives in question are coming from Bad Arolsen, Germany, and contain millions of documents that describe Nazi atrocities during…
In the run-up to next week’s election for the European Jewish Congress, the race for president has turned into a grudge match between a Frenchman and a Russian, both freshly minted millionaires. On one side is the incumbent, Pierre Besnainou, a Tunisian-born Internet tycoon who lives in Paris. His challenger is Moshe Kantor, a Russian…
Bill Clinton’s recent appearance at an American Jewish World Service gala fundraiser clocked in as the second Jewish-related event the former president has attended in a month. Before the June 13 event, where he accepted an award for his global humanitarian efforts, Clinton headlined a May fundraising dinner for American Friends of the Hebrew University….
If Mayor Michael Bloomberg casts his hat into the 2008 presidential race, he has the blessing of a predecessor at New York’s City Hall, Ed Koch. Speaking to the Forward by telephone this morning, the former New York City mayor said he would welcome a run by Bloomberg. “Oh yes, I think he’d be a…
אין קלאַס זענען די סטודענטן אָפֿט געווען אױף פֿאַרשידענע ניװאָען אָבער זי האָט זיך אָפּגעגעבן מיט יעדן באַזונדער.
