Once upon a time, back in the halcyon days of the 1980s, there was celebrated a Jewish rite of passage known as the bar or bat mitzvah. Upon arriving at such an affair, one was greeted with a sign-in board adorned with photos of the celebrant; the assembled were dressed in an array of cringe-inducing…
WASHINGTON — As Israeli-Iranian tensions mount, Jerusalem is increasingly concerned that the Bush administration is not doing enough to block Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The American-Israeli disagreement over Iran policy is just one of several that has emerged in recent weeks, the Forward has learned. The tensions were visible last week in Washington, during…
Rapprochement was the subtext of the Anti-Defamation League’s November 14 International Leadership Award dinner, held at Cipriani 42nd Street. The event was in honor of Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, chairman and CEO of L’Oréal. The white tablecloths, white-covered chairs and white gardenias in water-filled vases reflected the evening’s theme of reconciliation and a past best forgotten….
BOSTON — The highly optimistic motto at the biennial convention of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism this week was “lighting the way.” But as delegates debated a variety of hot-button issues, it was clear to many who attended the gathering here that Conservative leaders do not have a consensus vision for which direction the…
Once again, Stanley Siegelman startles our readers with his novel choice of subjects, delightfully presented in his habitual “Yinglish.” In describing his subject, he writes: “Minuscule, nonkosher crustaceans flourish in New York City’s tap water. They are harmless, but their presence renders the water off limits to observant Jews, according to the Orthodox Union. The…
In one of the largest Holocaust restitution cases in German history, the heirs of the Wertheim family, one of prewar Germany’s largest retailers, stand to receive more than $100 million in property looted by the Nazis. The development follows a decision by the current owner, retail conglomerate KarstadtQuelle AG, to drop its claims to three…
At a meeting called to strategize about the political and cultural challenges posed by Christian conservative activists, Jewish communal officials disagreed about the extent of the problem. They left with no concrete plans or strategy. The meeting was convened by the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, who warned in a major policy…
The Democratic National Committee unanimously adopted a resolution at its national meeting in Phoenix on December 3 condemning divestment from Israel. Stating that “efforts to isolate Israel through boycotts or actions that include the possibility of divestment are counterproductive to the search for peace,” the resolution declares the DNC’s “opposition to efforts to boycott, divest…
The office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was riven by an investigation of an Orthodox synagogue organization, but the one thing all members of the attorney general’s office agree on is that the office found “significant” problems at the synagogue organization that have not previously been disclosed publicly. Spitzer’s office began looking at…
A key player in Swiss Holocaust restitution battles is being criticized by the American Jewish Committee, which, because of his virulent criticism of Israel and the United States, is urging the United Nations to oust him from his position as a special rapporteur on the right to food. Jean Ziegler, a left-leaning Swiss intellectual active…
Arab Professor Acquitted Jurors acquitted Sami Al-Arian, a Florida professor, on eight charges that he helped lead Islamic Jihad; they deadlocked on another nine. The verdict was widely seen as a stinging rebuke of the Justice Department’s terrorism prosecution efforts. Al-Arian, formerly a computer-engineering professor at the University of South Florida, ended his five-month trial…
