Koala bears, kangaroos, blockbuster beaches, food festivals, mouthwatering honey and exceptional wine: customary expectations on a visit to Tasmania — but Jews? On Australia’s largest island, a triangular land of exotic woods and quaint cities, I encountered a history of remarkable Jewish life and the two oldest synagogues in Australia, each dating from 1845. The…
One day after American Jewry’s pro-Israel umbrella group rejected its bid for admission, J Street, the dovish lobby, posted a tongue-in-cheek thank you note on its website. “Thank you,” the letter said, “for finally making it clear that the Conference of Presidents is not representative of the voice of the Jewish community.” The letter, addressed…
Few people are envious of Mrs. Donald Sterling this week, despite her claim on half of her estranged husband’s estimated $1.8 billion fortune. Born Rochelle Stein, 80-year-old Shelly Sterling remains something of an enigma. Is she simply another in a long line of the L.A. Clippers owner’s victims? Or has she played a role, as…
The dovish group J Street has lost its bid to gain admission to the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations by an unexpectedly wide margin. In a secret ballot vote held Wednesday evening at the Conference offices in New York, J Street failed to come close to winning the two-thirds majority of participating members…
A construction worker has reportedly confessed to the January murder of Brooklyn Hasidic businessman Menachem Stark, which he has told investigators was a botched robbery. Kendal Felix, 26, who worked for a contractor who worked with Stark, intended to rob the landlord when he and two buddies snatched him off the street outside his office…
(Reuters) — To both critics and supporters, it was “classic” John Kerry. A day before the formal end of Kerry’s quixotic, nine-month effort to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, the Secretary of State was surreptitiously taped making a comment that provoked a political firestorm in Washington. In a closed meeting with foreign policy experts, Kerry…
(JTA) — On Twitter, pro-Palestinian activists dubbed it “DivestApalooza.” Student governments at three Southern California public universities all voted on divestment resolutions targeting Israel in a single day. The April 23 votes were part of a surge in student governments at American universities voting on divestment resolutions. In the past two years, at least 16…
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…
Several hours before Yom HaShoah solemnly commenced, the website deadspin.com released the fullest version yet of the secretly recorded conversations between Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and V. Stiviano, his ex-mistress. Their subject matter, Sterling’s antipathy toward black Americans, at one point veered in a remarkably timely direction. “Isn’t it wrong?” Stiviano…
The owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team may be well on the way to making his name, “Donald Sterling,” virtually synonymous in the public’s mind with bigotry. But that is not the name he was actually born with. Donald Tokowitz was born to Jewish immigrants in Chicago who had, in fact, fled Eastern…
(JTA) — Standing in front of a giant flag, a tall blond politician asks his excited followers whether their country should have greater or fewer Moroccans. When they are done chanting “fewer,” the speaker, Geert Wilders of the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom, promises his listeners that he will “take care of it.” Wilders was…
100% of profits support our journalism
