UNITED NATIONS — Even as United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Muslims to condemn extremists preaching and committing violence in the name of Islam, several participants of a special conference on “Islamophobia” were blaming “racist America” as the root cause for the rise in hate crimes against Muslims. The embattled Annan, target of a rising…
Meeting a man who, only three days earlier, was still, in his words, “dead,” stuck in a cement cellblock of Egyptian solitary confinement, is an experience for which few come prepared. To observe the human parade visiting Azzam Azzam, the released Israeli prisoner, last Tuesday at his home in the Galilee town of Mrar was…
WASHINGTON — American officials are pressing jailed leader Marwan Barghouti to withdraw from next month’s Palestinian elections, in what some insiders describe as a desperate attempt to salvage the newfound progress in the peace process and avoid an embarrassing blow to America’s push for democracy in the Arab world. The Forward has learned that American…
Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly chastised a Jewish caller on his radio show who objected to “Christmas going into schools.” The caller said he “grew up with a resentment because I felt that people were trying to convert me to Christianity.” In response, O’Reilly, a self-described traditionalist who has suggested that much of…
A woman from Boca Raton, Fla., who in recent years has placed ads in the Forward imploring readers to pressure courts to return custody of her two children to her, is wanted by the police for nonpayment of child support and for improper contact after placing ads in a local newspaper seeking others to help…
In a significant shift, the Orthodox Union has moved from supporting the controversial practices employed by a kosher slaughterhouse under its supervision to requesting that certain of these practices be changed. The move came amid a furious publicity blitz conducted by the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Armed with a…
In 1998, when an international agency was formed to help Holocaust survivors collect on their prewar insurance policies, Alex Moscovic thought he finally might be able to recover the policy his parents whispered about as the Nazis were marching into his native Hungary in 1944. Moscovic filed his claim in 2000 with the agency, known…
A coalition of American Jewish organizations this week called on mainline Protestant leaders officially to reject divestment from Israel as a potential advocacy tool. The Jewish coalition issued a detailed statement Tuesday as its official response to the Protestant groups, who have been considering divestment but asked the Jewish organizations to explain why they find…
WASHNGTON — The drive to stop an American company from doing business with Israel has received a prominent boost from a leading human-rights organization. The New York-based Human Rights Watch is urging members to send letters to Caterpillar, a publicly traded heavy-equipment company located in Peoria, Ill., urging it to “immediately suspend” the sale of…
Democratic Dynamo? As top Democrats furiously jockey to be considered among the potential candidates for the post of chairman of the Democratic National Committee, one Jewish figure has surfaced among the lot. Rep. Martin Frost, who lost his seat as a result of Texas’s controversial redistricting plan in what was the most expensive and acrimonious…
Security officials raided a Jewish school in Caracas, Venezuela, causing panic among children and parents. Local and international Jewish groups expressed outrage over the way the investigation was conducted during the Monday morning raid. Police were reportedly searching the school, of 1,500 children, for arms, based on accusations that Israeli intelligence was connected with the…
