Multiple times over the past year, as leaders of the national Women’s March organizations became embroiled in controversy over their ties to the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, many of the dozens of local Women’s Marches around the country have tried to do damage control. Some have done so by condemning the national…
The Anti-Defamation League has emerged as a supporter of controversial legislation targeting boycotts of Israel. But internal ADL documents obtained by the Forward show that the organization’s own staff believed the laws could actually harm American Jews. In the summer of 2016, ADL staff wrote an internal memo arguing that legislating against the boycott, divestment…
Leah Forster is the Orthodox world’s favorite lesbian Jewish comedian. Admittedly, there’s not much competition for that title. But for nearly a decade, Forster was one of the most popular entertainers in the community, until she walked away from the business and her strict ultra-observant lifestyle. Now she’s making a comeback in both the religious…
Crypto-Jews. Secret Jews. Conversos. Marranos. B’nai Anusim. These are the terms used for Jews, mainly of Spanish descent, who were forced to convert to Catholicism or die during the period of Spain’s Inquisition. While many Sephardic Jews did convert, some continued to practice their Judaism in secret. Now, this 500-year history of hidden Jewish lineage…
BOSTON (JTA) – Two New England police departments withdrew from a security seminar in Israel last week following a public backlash from pro-Palestinian activists. Members of the groups Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace are claiming the withdrawals in two liberal redoubts as a significant victory in their efforts to foil…
Wake up. For morning prayers, sit in silent contemplation. Have breakfast. Study Hasidic meditation. Study Kabbalah. Have lunch. Meditate. Study the Talmud. Do yoga. Have dinner. Chant the evening prayers. This is how students at a new summer program from Romemu, the congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, will spend their days. The six-week program…
When the first Christian evangelical volunteers descended on the religious West Bank settlement of Har Bracha about 10 years ago, offering to harvest grapes for the local Jewish farmers free of charge, not everyone welcomed them with open arms. After all, for generations Jews had been taught that when Christians go out of their way…
Special Counsel Robert Mueller declared in a new court filing that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn should not serve time in prison because of his “substantial assistance” with investigators — including sharing information on the Trump presidential transition team’s efforts to stop an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations Security Council. Jared Kushner, President…
Divisive Conversation Starter When Natalie Portman, 37, belatedly declined to come to Israel for the Genesis Prize ceremony, she set off a furor. Citing the “mistreatment of those suffering from today’s atrocities,” she said she could not travel to accept the prize. She set herself up as an embodiment of principles that were at odds…
Mindel Zaetz’s husband was chased down the street last week by a group of men while he was on his way home from work, just off of Eastern Parkway, the broad thoroughfare that runs through the middle of Crown Heights, in Brooklyn. “He came home really spooked,” said Zaetz, 29, as she was on her…
Cooking Food With A Side Of Activism Julia Turshen doesn’t like to talk about herself that much. She’s much more comfortable giving the microphone and the attention to marginalized people who rarely get a turn to talk. But Turshen has spent the last two years fighting back against power. She fed an army of righteously…
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