Lectures and Discussions Yehoshua Speaks: Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua delivers the annual Irving Howe Memorial Lecture, named after the late founding editor of Dissent magazine. The acclaimed literary figure speaks on the topic of “The Root of Anti-Semitism,” with a response from City University of New York historian Elisheva Carlebach. City University of New York…
JERUSALEM — Bobby Brown, a former adviser to former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is slated to be named director of international affairs of the World Jewish Congress as well as its Jerusalem director, the Forward has learned. The appointment is the congress’s third major personnel move in the past month and comes amid a…
In a small reminder that the fate of American Jews is never far removed from that of Israelis, the panic over a defective Remedia baby formula quickly spread to the Orthodox enclaves of New York, where some Remedia products are sold in stores. There have been no reported cases of sickness in America so far,…
One year ago at this time, when we published our annual Forward Fifty list of the most influential members of the American Jewish community, we observed that our community and our nation lived in the shadow of a looming war. We noted that instead of forging a consensus, the threats we faced left us divided…
Visitors to the 20th-anniversary celebration of the klezmer band Ensemble M’chaiya (which means “a real joy” in Yiddish) can expect one thing, according to band co-founder Terran Doehrer: “A good time.” “We’re going to live up to our name,” said Doehrer, a 50-year-old guitarist. There will be singing, dancing, music and general raucousness. For the…
Russia’s arrest of a Jewish oil magnate has drawn heavy criticism from abroad, but the feuding leaders of the country’s two major Jewish organizations are both voicing support for the government action. In a rare moment of agreement between bitter rivals, Berel Lazar, chief rabbi for the Chabad-Lubavitch-dominated Federation of Russian Jews, and Yevgeny Satanovsky,…
Joseph Epstein Treats Readers to a Group of Entertaining Alte Cockers Fabulous Small Jews: Stories By Joseph Epstein Houghton Mifflin, 352 pages, $23. * * *| Jews have an age-old answer to snobbery. It’s called chutzpah. If some pretentious jerk looks down his nose at you because of the “-berg” at the end of your…
MINNEAPOLIS — After two years of relative silence, the leader of America’s largest synagogue movement has returned to the policy stage with a full-bore attack on the policies of the Bush administration and the Sharon government. In a major policy address here last week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the newly renamed Union for Reform…
Germany’s War and the Holocaust: Disputed Histories By Omer Bartov Cornell University Press, 248 pages, $18.95. * * *| Holocaust Historiography: A Jewish Perspective By Dan Michman Vallentine Mitchell, 435 pages, $29.50. * * *| At several Holocaust conferences in recent years, the distinguished literary scholar Lawrence Langer has murmured in frustration: “Why don’t historians…
AMY SCHWARTZMAN The religious leader of Temple Rodef Shalom in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Va., Rabbi Amy Schwartzman made headlines in September when she confronted President Bush with the issue of poverty during a White House meeting between Bush and an invited group of rabbis. The other 16 clerics present took turns flattering…
“Remember, fellow survivors, when we emerged from the ghettos and the forests and the death camps, hopelessly determined to invoke hope and tell the tales, few were willing to listen. Survivors were understood by survivors alone. They spoke in code. Those who were not there will never know what it meant being there. All outsiders…
