As two of his top editors leave to work on other projects, Michael Lerner, editor of the liberal Jewish bimonthly Tikkun, has indicated that he is looking to redirect his magazine’s energies away from Israel and toward a greater focus on interfaith matters. In a December 4 e-mail to writers for the magazine, and in…
“As opposed to the dense and demanding discourse of scholarship, students crave instant gratification,” complained outgoing Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Ismar Schorsch in his fiery farewell address last May. “The way to the heart is not through the circuitous and arduous route of the mind but the rhythmic beat of the drums.” Although framed in…
San Diego – With Hollywood starlets donning red-string bracelets and toting the Zohar around as if it were the latest fashion accessory, serious proponents of Jewish mysticism find themselves struggling over the commercialization and popularization of Kabbalah. In particular, students and teachers have been trying to figure out whether they should be ecstatic or despondent…
It was a rumor too juicy to ignore: A teacher at a mainstream Orthodox high school in New York City, the story went, was prepared to defend the six ultra-traditionalist rabbis who attended the Holocaust denial conference in Tehran earlier this month. The story seemed to be the perfect counterweight to the current uproar surrounding…
A former United Nations weapons inspector and leading Iraq War opponent has written a new book alleging that Jerusalem is pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran, and accusing the pro-Israel lobby of dual loyalty and “outright espionage.” In the new book, called “Target Iran,” Scott Ritter, who served as a senior U.N. weapons…
Steve Poizner is the Republican to watch for California’s 2010 gubernatorial race, according to many pundits — awfully good press for someone who won’t be sworn into his first public office until January. The California insurance commissioner-elect has made a splash as the only Republican to win a statewide office here this year, besides re-elected…
President Bush has hired a new liaison to the Jewish community, appointing Jeremy Katz to take over for Jay Zeidman, the Forward has learned. Katz will be the sixth White House liaison for the Jewish community since Bush took office in 2001. The new liaison started off at the White House as an assistant to…
A group of elderly and disabled refugees are suing the federal government for cutting off their Social Security benefits. For the past three years, a little-noticed provision from the 1997 welfare reform bill has meant that disabled and elderly refugees who do not receive citizenship within seven years of arriving in America are stripped of…
Thirteen-year-old Becky Goldberg’s summer was filled with magic: glittering sunshine on sparkling lakes, capsized canoes and children rappelling like spiders down rocky cliffs. By the time her four weeks at Jewish sleep-away camp were over, Goldberg felt like a link in a giant chain. “I had a ton of best friends from all over the…
Dov Aryeh grew up attending Ansche Chesed, a Conservative synagogue in New York City. He still has the little English-language Tanach the synagogue gave him for his bar mitzvah almost 40 years ago. He’s been involved in the Jewish community his entire life. Today he’s in a long-term, committed relationship with a fellow Jew. But…
Contemporary Jewish-themed cultural posters that were commissioned by the Polish government under communism are presented in an exhibition currently on display at the JCC in Manhattan. The exhibit features some 70 works of the Polish School of Posters, created by renowned architects, designers and painters from the 1950s through the 1980s. The post-World War II…
