The Democratic Republic of Congo is at a crossroads: Its next election, scheduled for the fall, could be the first open presidential race in 50 years. One rising star and potential candidate is a man named Moïse Katumbi, business tycoon and former governor of mineral-rich Katanga, in the south of the country. Katumbi is a…
Hillary Clinton took a huge step toward locking down the Democratic nomination once and for all with a decisive victory over Bernie Sanders in the New York primary — a win that appears to have been boosted by strong backing from Jewish voters. Clinton, for the first time since the campaign kicked off a year…
A Jerusalem bus exploded on Monday evening at a major junction in the city, igniting another bus and injuring 21 people, two of them seriously, in a possible terror attack. Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said that the blast was caused by an explosive device on the first bus, and that a police investigation was underway…
A former leader of a Brooklyn Hasidic security patrol was arrested in Rockland County on April 17 on charges that he offered cash to a police officer in return for gun permits, prosecutors have announced. Shaya Lichtentsein, a former coordinator of the Boro Park-based Shomrim security patrol, was charged in federal court in Manhattan with…
Washington – The contentious exchange over Israel between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders during their April 14 Brooklyn debate may have caused some in the Democratic Party to cringe, but for J Street, the dovish pro-Israel lobby, it was a cause for celebration. For the left-leaning lobby, Sanders’ choice to criticize Israel’s actions during the…
On a recent afternoon in Queens, Secretary of State John Kerry sat with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, chatting amiably. “It’s great to see you two side by side,” Kerry said to the delegates. “Now, have we agreed about these land swaps?” The Israeli and Palestinian smiled and nodded — a historic agreement had been reached;…
The American writer Ayelet Waldman was on a tour near the Hamra checkpoint, deep inside the Palestinian West Bank, when a silver car with Israeli plates pulled over. The driver, an Israeli Jew, got out and began taking photos of Waldman’s tour group, which included the Austrian author Eva Menasse and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine…
The hashtag #IStandWithSimone took off shortly after the Sanders campaign abruptly suspended its Jewish outreach coordinator April 13. Within hours, hundreds of tweets were posted in support of Simone Zimmerman, who had been hired only days earlier; she had immediately created an uproar when an old Facebook post surfaced in which she used vulgarity directed…
Rabbi Sara Luria wasn’t sure why she was called to participate in a panel discussion on faith and social justice with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders just 45 minutes before it was to start. Turns out she was a last-minute substitute for Rabbi Andy Bachman, who was scheduled to participate in the Saturday-night Sanders campaign…
WASHINGTON — When Nordea Bank, a large, Stockholm-based financial services firm, got word that it had been blacklisted by the state of Illinois for boycotting Israel, top officials at the company were genuinely perplexed. “It’s strange, very strange,” Sasja Beslik, head of responsible investments at Nordea Asset Management, told the Forward. “I don’t know how…
(JTA) — Even before he was kicked out of Britain’s Labour Party for saying that Israel runs the Islamic State terrorist group, Bob Campbell was a marginal figure within the party. A former forest ranger and first-aid trainer from northern England, Campbell, 49, began his Labour career last year volunteering to help the campaign of…
