Cantor Congregation Shaarey Zedek Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Age: 56 Nominated by: Larry Nemer Song: “L’Dor Vador,” Meir Finkelstein Jewish music is part of the fabric of my soul. It is my permanent connection to my father and forefathers. Jewish music is home. Growing up in a musical family, to me music was like family glue….
Cantor Temple Beth Sholom Lake Havasu City, Arizona Age: 67 Nominated by: Himself Song: “Hashkiveynu,” Elliot Rosenbaum Jewish music — in a synagogue context — should be accessible even to the “Hebraically challenged” to encourage and inspire the congregation to participate in community prayer. — Elliot Rosenbaum INFLUENCES: Classical and popular music, The Beatles.
A shadowy website that posts dossiers on pro-Palestinian student activists has grown rapidly in recent months, while continuing to zealously guard the identity of its own staff and backers. Since a Forward report drew international attention to the Canary Mission this past May, the number of students and other pro-Palestinian activists on whom it has…
Despite mounting questions about his credibility and criticism that he may be supporting terrorism, a Canadian businessman says he is more determined than ever to continue his controversial quest to buy the freedom of Yazidi and Christian women and girls enslaved by the brutal terrorist group, Islamic State. In a September 1 interview with the…
It’s a constant of virtually every profile written about Bernie Sanders: Shortly after college, the Vermont senator now running for president volunteered at an Israeli kibbutz. Depending on the writer, this detail might speak to Sanders’s Jewish identity, his stance on Israel, or his socialist values. Were any or all of these honed in the…
The TV ads attacking the Iran nuclear deal are still being aired in dozens of states, voters are still organizing congressional call-ins and hundreds of top pro-Israel activists still plan to fly into Washington for a last-minute push when Congress returns from recess. But the fight is over. With Senator Barbara Mikulski’s September 2 announcement…
At the end of my interview with President Obama the morning of Friday, August 28, after he had defended with lawyerly precision the pending multinational nuclear agreement with Iran and voiced a determined optimism that the toxic relations between his administration and Israel will be repaired, I asked him a more personal question. He had…
Here is the transcript of Jane Eisner’s interview with President Obama on Friday, August 28 in the Oval Office. The questions have been edited slightly for clarity. His responses are published here in full. JANE EISNER: You have been generous in explaining the Iran deal to all sorts of people, so I want to focus…
A white rabbi and black minister (this isn’t the start of a joke) link arms and are swept up in the sound of a gospel song. Not only the two clergymen. As the song soars, an entire congregation is on its feet in this Orthodox house of prayer and the congregants are trying to overcome…
President Obama sought to reach out to Jews as “family” Friday as he made a dramatic new appeal for support of the nuclear deal with Iran — and vowed to repair the damaged relationship with Israel. In an hour-long webcast address sponsored by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of…
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly having a $13-million luxurious presidential palace built near Ramallah despite his government facing a $2-billion deficit. According to the Times of Israel and several other Israeli news outlets, the project, which includes two helipads, is listed on the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction website devoted to…
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