I am my own bad middle-of-the-road radio station. I keep finding myself singing, “Hot town! Summer in the city/Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty.” No offense to The Lovin’ Spoonful, but at this point, belting out that old chestnut in public is like warbling “Yerushalayim shel Zahav” at the cool kids’ table at…
Due to an editor’s error, an article by Ofer Shelah in last week’s Forward Forum (“How To Become a Darling of the Settler Movement,” June 24) included a partial and misleading quote from a television appearance by Shelah in which he discussed his new book on Ariel Sharon. Shelah did not state a personal belief…
“Ours was a culturally rich Jewish household,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies said at the June 6 National Foundation for Jewish Culture Awards in the Arts dinner, held at the Roosevelt Hotel. Margulies was honored with the foundation’s Literary Arts Award. “By that, I mean we didn’t go to synagogue, we went to Broadway.” But…
TEL AVIV — As preparations for the August withdrawal from Gaza accelerated over the past week, Israel got a series of grim reminders that any hope of disengagement resulting in a reduction in terrorism might be just wishful thinking. Palestinian attacks, which declined drastically following a cease-fire agreement in February, began rising perceptibly in May…
On her 80th birthday, poet Rivke Basman ben Khaim was featured in the Forverts’s Pearls of Yiddish Poetry. She started writing poems at age 7. But unlike most child prodigies, who tend to burn out at an early age, Basman ben Khaim has talents that have flourished with the years. One of her poems, published…
JERUSALEM — An American-born Israeli soldier was court-martialed this week and sentenced to 56 days in jail after refusing to participate two days earlier in the demolition of deserted settler homes in Gaza. New Jersey-born Avi Bieber, a 19-year-old corporal, was convicted on three counts of refusing to carry out an order during the June…
A new poll is underscoring the growing ideological chasm between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews in America. The poll, commissioned by Yeshiva University, found that Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews hold diametrically opposite views on a host of national security issues related to the Middle East conflict. In one example, 59% of the Orthodox respondents said they…
A prolific right-wing American Jewish commentator has called for Israeli Prime Minister Sharon to be court-martialed and “relieved of his command of the nation’s military.” Emanuel A. Winston, a regular columnist for the Jewish Press, a prominent Orthodox-oriented newspaper in Brooklyn, issued his call for a military coup in one of the many columns that…
Hundreds of Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidim gathered in New York City last week to rally community opposition to Israel’s plan to dismantle settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank. The rally, held June 23 at the movement’s worldwide headquarters in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, featured Arieh Eldad, a Knesset member from the National Union…
One prominent no-show at the ZOA gathering was Stephen Schwartz, executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. Schwartz, a convert to Islam and a former Washington correspondent for the Forward, was scheduled to speak Tuesday about Saudi Arabia. But days earlier, his name was quietly removed from the press release on the ZOA’s Web…
WASHINGTON — In an address to a right-wing American Jewish organization, Israel’s ambassador to Washington pledged that his government would not remove any more West Bank settlements after the planned dismantling of four communities in August. The Israeli ambassador, Daniel Ayalon, made his remarks to members of the Zionist Organization of America during the organization’s…
