Forward 50 2011
The Yiddish theater’s influence on Broadway is well documented, but this year, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas showed that its legacy stretches to the concert hall as well. Tilson Thomas, music director of the San Francisco Symphony and founder and artistic director of Miami Beach’s New World Symphony Orchestra, paid tribute to his grandparents, Yiddish theater…
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 marked a significant milestone in the career of architect Daniel Libeskind — whose vision for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site was the clear choice of the people of New York. The simple plan he sketched in 2002, “Memory Foundations,” has undergone surprisingly little transformation on its way…
Few people in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox community of Boro Park may have read Judy Brown’s debut novel, “Hush,” but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t caused quite a stir. Based loosely on Brown’s childhood experience of witnessing a friend being molested, “Hush” follows a young woman as she struggles to deal with pent-up anger and guilt years…
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords returned to Washington in early October for only the second time since suffering a severe brain injury in an assassination attempt in January. The Democratic lawmaker didn’t head to Capitol Hill, but instead went to the Executive Office Building for a ceremony marking the retirement of her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly….
In the crowded field of Israel advocacy, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of The Israel Project, stands out, and not just because she is one of the few women leaders doing this kind of work. In the nearly 10 years since she founded TIP, the organization has grown from a Washington-based start-up to a…
At 6 feet, 4 inches tall, Rabbi Rick Jacobs cuts an imposing figure, moving with the grace of the dancer he once was. The new president-elect of the Union of Reform Judaism was also a choreographer, and that, too, is evident in his steady rise to one of the most important posts in American Jewish…
On August 10, Philip Levine became the latest in a long line of Jewish poets — from Karl Shapiro in 1946 to Robert Pinsky in 1997 — to be named poet laureate of the United States. At 83, Levine is one of the oldest writers to take up the post and, despite having won most…
Support him, loathe him or feel wildly ambivalent — whatever you think of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States has done more than any other non-Jew we can think of to shape the American Jewish story in 2011. Obama, 50, rode a near-tidal wave of Jewish support toward his historic win in…
In an era when Jewish baseball players are remembered as heroes from another time, Ryan Braun ranks among the very best current players of the game — of any religious persuasion. As a big hitter for the Milwaukee Brewers, the 27-year-old Braun has consistently broken team records. And his huge, 450-foot home run on September…
Attacks on Jewish sites in Denmark and France early this year have set American Jews to worrying: Do U.S. Jews, too, face an increased threat? National Jewish groups have an answer to those worries: a secretive not-for-profit organization called the Secure Community Network. Todd Stettner was skeptical of SCN before 2014. The president and CEO…
(Reuters) — Workers at a Jewish community center and a nearby synagogue in Colorado opened envelopes on Monday containing a white substance and at least one threatening message, police said. The Boulder Jewish Community Center was evacuated after a letter was found to hold white powder, which was later declared harmless, along with a note…
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