For 125 years, the Forward has delivered accurate, timely and nuanced news to American Jews. From breaking news to in-depth investigations, our reporting team covers the people, institutions and issues that define the many ways to be Jewish in the…
News
-
Meet Franciso Salvador, the ‘southern Paul Revere’ and first Jew ever elected in America
Editor’s note: We’ve republished this article, which originally ran in 2017, in honor of the 245th anniversary of Francis Salvador’s death. (JTA) — Long before 30-somethings Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump had the ear of President-elect Donald Trump, a 27-year-old became the first Jew to ever hold elected office in what would become the United…
-
For 35 years, this mother-daughter duo has run a radio show on Ladino and Sephardic Jewish culture from Madrid
MADRID (JTA) — Matilde Gini de Barnatán and her daughter Viviana Rajel Barnatán didn’t set out to make Jewish history in Spain. In the 1960s and ’70s, Matilde, now 85, established herself in Argentina as a prominent researcher, teacher and scholar of the history of Sephardic culture and the Spanish Inquisition in Ibero-America. Her extensive…
-
At the center of the Surfside tragedy, a rabbi helps people hold onto hope — and mourns his former neighbors
When Fred Klein, the rabbi in charge of providing counseling services to the grieving survivors of the Champlain Towers South disaster, looks out onto the rubble of the collapsed building, he can’t help thinking of the people who used to be his neighbors. Klein grew up in Miami not far from Surfside, and when he…
The Latest
-
Queer Zionists ask: ‘Where are our allies?’
Ahead of Pride Month this year, New Jersey-based trans activist Hannah Simpson reached out to the head of a trans organization to help plan an event. But when she suggested including groups like a Wider Bridge, a non-profit that connects American and Israeli LGBTQ communities, Simpson was booted. “I was told ‘because you’re a Jew,…
-
‘A veritable sigh of relief’: How the world’s Jewish community came together to bring aid to Surfside
SURFSIDE, Fla. (JTA) — “I’m a Jew, I’m a Jew, I’m a Jew,” Steve Eisenberg tells me. We’re standing in The Shul of Bal Harbour on Sunday, in its social hall under construction. Two days earlier, on Friday evening just before Shabbat, it was piled high with blankets, clothing, mattresses, food and toiletries for the…
-
Equity and inclusion officer resigns over a statement condemning antisemitism
It started with a seemingly innocuous statement. Jews have “the right to life, safety and freedom from scapegoating and fear,” declared April Powers, a Black Jewish woman who posted the release in June on website and social channels of an organization of children’s book authors where she headed diversity and inclusion initiatives. It did not…
-
Were southern Jews in the civil rights era ‘inside agitators?’
T. K. Thorne’s book, “Behind the Magic Curtain: Secrets, Spies, and Unsung White Allies of Birmingham’s Civil Rights Days,” challenges the accepted view that all Southern Jews stayed aloof from the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. In her introduction, Thorne quotes Larry Brooks, editor and publisher of Southern Jewish Life magazine, who observed in 2015 that,…
-
From Ground Zero to Surfside, a bond between tragedies emerges
With a residential tower in Surfside, Fla., reduced to a smoking heap of debris several stories high, and families near the site holding onto slim hopes of their loved ones’ rescue, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik found himself revisiting the trauma of September 11, 2001, when he was the Jewish chaplain for the New York City Fire…
-
Meet the beloved ‘Bitcoin Rabbi’ of Twitter
(JTA) — Many of Twitter’s cryptocurrency zealots are often notorious trolls, but one particular thought leader stands out from the rest. He happens to be a rabbi. “Twitter people either use it to scream at each other and not be nice, which I don’t like,” says micro-influencer Rabbi Michael Caras, also known as @thebitcoinrabbi. ”I…
-
This rabbi was addicted to opioids. Now he’s using his experience to help his congregants.
(JTA) — For Rabbi Michael Perice, the hardest thing about counseling congregants who have family members dealing with addiction had been holding back his own experience with substance abuse. “I really wanted to let people know in these conversations that I understand. And I couldn’t do that,” Perice said. Perice, the spiritual leader at Temple Sinai…
-
After decades of resistance, LGBTQ marriage is Conservative practice. Is Modern Orthodoxy next?
In February 2021, Toronto’s largest Conservative synagogue, Beth Tzedec, announced that they would perform LGBTQ marriages. They were one of the last major North American Conservative synagogues to do so: Beth Tzedec’s announcement came nearly a decade after the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, first formally approved clergy performing LGBTQ marriage. For…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
- 3
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 4
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
-
Fast Forward In Reykjavik, Hanukkah offers a chance for Iceland’s tiny, isolated Jewish community to come together
-
Opinion When my children decorate for Hanukkah, I don’t just see pride. I see pluralism in action.
-
Fast Forward ‘The most Australian name’: Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi Beach attack, embodies a nation’s grief
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
