On a typical evening after putting their daughter to bed, Dov Waxman and Stephanie Davidson will sit on the matching rocking chairs on their back porch and chat about what’s driving them nuts at work. One night last week Waxman, a professor of Israel studies at Northeastern University, was fretting over an op-ed he wants…
The leader of New York City’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes said she faces “a huge challenge” in preventing offenses: the spread of hate online. “We’re in a whole new atmosphere where hate travels instantaneously and can be a motivating factor,” said Deborah Lauter, the office’s new executive director. For many American Jews,…
Jodi Rudoren, the Forward’s brand-new Editor-in-Chief, covered not one but two Israeli elections (2013 and 2015) during her tenure as Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times. Now, with Israelis heading to the polls next Tuesday for the second time in less than six months, Jodi is ready to answer your questions about Israeli…
On Tuesday night in Israel, the major television stations broadcast what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised would be a “dramatic announcement.” The bigger drama, though, happened thousands of miles away. It overshadowed and undermined Netanyahu’s big moment. Netanyahu promised in his speech that after what he predicted would be his election victory on Tuesday, Israel…
At the beginning of this year, like he did every year, Alan Sussman asked the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle to donate some of his family fund’s money to a charity of his choice. This time, though, things went awry. That’s because the group Sussman wanted to support was IfNotNow, the left-wing Jewish group that…
In mid-June, Allison Benedikt, the executive editor of Slate, was attending a book reading to celebrate Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s debut novel, “Fleishman Is in Trouble.” Since its publication, the book, which tells the story of a messy divorce on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, has hit the New York Times bestseller list and received glowing reviews for…
“Hundreds of illegal immigrants from the Congo are showing up on the streets of Texas. Jewish organizations have instructed them on how to fly to Ecuador & how to travel to the U.S. and how to claim asylum.” Those words appeared in an online chat room for members of the “American Identity Movement.” That’s the…
Rabbi Rachel Cowan, the mother of the “Jewish healing” movement, was hailed throughout the Jewish world for giving new life to the ancient practice of visiting a sickly person to pray over them. And in the moment she needed such prayer most desperately, it came in force — via the internet. Last year, Cowan’s friends…
The first sign of trouble might have been in May, when a poll showed him doing far worse among his fellow Jews than with Democratic voters in general. Or it could have been in July, when the Forward found that Jews formed a smaller part of his major donor base than nearly every other candidate….
Updated 9:40 a.m. When a Jew dies, it swiftly sets in motion a succession of ancient customs, often carried out by the local community. The body is guarded until burial. A special group — called a “holy society” in Hebrew — prepares the body for burial in a custom called the tahara, the purification. Prayers…
George Selim knows more about fighting domestic terrorism than almost anyone – and four days after a white nationalist gunman killed 22 people in an El Paso Walmart, he said the United States is doing it wrong. These days, Selim is a senior vice president at the Anti-Defamation League in charge of their education and…
