For 125 years, the Forward has delivered accurate, timely and nuanced news to American Jews. From breaking news to in-depth investigations, our reporting team covers the people, institutions and issues that define the many ways to be Jewish in the…
News
-
Jewish Fraternity With Right Wing Ties Helped Block J Street Bid
When American Jewry’s major umbrella group on Israel met recently to debate a membership application from the dovish lobby J Street, some of the strongest opposition to it came from an organization better known for throwing beer-fueled parties. Deliberations in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations are secret. But the hawkish Zionist…
-
Beaten Holocaust Survivor Ursula Nelson Sues Home Care Agency for $1M
Holocaust survivor Ursula Nelson was planning to live out the rest of her life at her quiet apartment in Queens, N.Y. That changed one morning in late March 2011, when Nelson ended up badly bruised and beaten, with a fractured nose and an injured shoulder, in a New York hospital. At age 89, Nelson had…
-
The Remarkable Career of Ruth Wisse, Yiddish Scholar and Political Firebrand
On a cold day in late March, I sat in room 103 of Harvard University’s Sever Hall with about 60 undergraduates, listening to Ruth Wisse talk about Avrom Sutzkever. A partisan and a survivor of the Vilna Ghetto, Sutzkever was one of the 20th century’s greatest Yiddish poets. The reading that day was of his…
The Latest
-
How Hammurabi Got Under the Skin of One Orthodox Talmudist
One day, when I was in my early 20s and teaching Torah to religious newbies in Jerusalem, I felt the bedrock of belief shudder beneath me. There’s a reason the sages wrote that the air of Jerusalem makes one wise. I could feel the vibe everywhere. I loved how a cosmetician might share a Torah…
-
How Israel’s Dusty Zionist Bureaucracy Survives
(Haaretz) — The Knesset is full of young politicians, a generation unacquainted with the national Zionist institutions, which thinks they’re dusty and irrelevant old relics. Only the experienced operators — headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman — are aware of the treasure that lies in them: unsupervised budgets, jobs for cronies…
-
Literary Bomb Shelter in Tel Aviv
On my first day of teaching at Bar Ilan University, during a tour of the palm-tree-lined campus near Tel Aviv, the program administrator informed me apologetically that I’d been assigned a basement classroom in a building some distance from the English department. I wasn’t concerned — over the years I’ve taught in basement classrooms, in…
-
German-Jewish Émigré Turns 100 — and Still Hosts Weekly East Gatherings
Gaby Glueckselig’s 100th birthday, celebrated last week at the Leo Baeck Institute for German Jewish History, represented a convergence of New York past and present, German and Austrian culture, experience and youth. For 25 years, Glueckselig’s name has been almost synonymous with the Stammtisch, a weekly German-language gathering that was started by two refugees, Bavarian…
-
Kharkhiv Jews Stay Calm Amid Separatist Storm Elsewhere in Ukraine
In the basement of the Jewish Cultural Center, a small group of folks in their 20s and early 30s comes trickling in for the weekly Friday night Sabbath celebration. It’s fewer people than usual, about 15 participants, since many have gone out of town for the May Day holiday, but the members represent a wide…
-
Should I Let My Bisexuality Get In the Way of Conversion?
The Seesaw is a new kind of advice column in which a a broad range of columnists will address the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. Join the discussion by commenting on this post, sharing it on Facebook or following the Forward on Twitter. And keep the questions coming. You can email…
-
‘Broken’ Presidents Conference Faces Powerful Rebellion After J Street Debacle
American Jewry’s large centrist and liberal groups are seeking to radically reform the community’s main umbrella organization, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. This new effort is the biggest fallout yet from the Presidents Conference’s controversial decision to reject the membership bid of J Street, the dovish Israel lobby. In a May…
-
92Y Raises Eyebrows With Appointment of Non-Jewish Henry Timms as New Chief
(JTA) — When the 92nd Street Y announced last week that it had hired a new executive director, Crain’s New York Business went with an eye-catching headline. “It’s a goy! 92nd St. Y picks first non-Jewish chief.” The announcement that Henry Timms would lead the famed Upper East Side cultural center represented the culmination of…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
- 2
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 3
Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
- 4
Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Richmond mayor facing resignation calls over posts calling Sydney massacre ‘false flag’
-
Fast Forward Mamdani appointee resigns over past antisemitic online posts about ‘money hungry Jews’
-
Fast Forward First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
-
Culture A Jewish-Muslim art show builds ‘little bridges’ of coexistence
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
