Twelve alumni of Yeshiva University have joined 19 other former students who are suing the Modern Orthodox flagship university for allegedly covering up decades of sexual abuse at its Manhattan high school for boys. But the 31 students suffered a setback August 6, when United States District Judge John G. Koeltl denied their attorney’s request…
Any Jewish mother thinks her baby boy is special. But Amanda Zablocki’s son is one in a million — and in one of the most heart-wrenching ways imaginable. Idan Zablocki is 1 year old. Three months ago he was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called Hyper IgM syndrome, a rare immune deficiency that actually affects…
‘So you’re Jewish, right?” Tobias asked while we were watching an episode of “Real Housewives” on his couch. “Yup,” I responded. Even though this was our first date after meeting in a yoga class — he was the flexible, relaxed one; I was schvitzing and falling — I let a few more details slip because…
When the nation’s largest Jewish federation convened its first-ever conference recently on engaging interfaith families, perhaps the most notable thing about it was the utter lack of controversy that greeted the event. There was a time when the stereotypical Jewish approach to intermarriage was to shun the offender and sit shiva. A generation ago, the…
Richard Fishman’s office gets dozens of frantic phone calls every day, most of them from Jews. As the chief regulator of New York State’s not-for-profit cemeteries, Jewish graves aren’t Fishman’s only problem. But they up take a lot of his time. When you call the cemetery about the grave your uncle said was reserved for…
Iceland has no synagogue, no rabbis, no Jewish community center or organized structure. In fact, Judaism is not even one of Iceland’s state-recognized religions. Still, Iceland has about 100 Jews who call this North Atlantic island home. And last year, roughly 50 of them gathered in a hall downtown on Erev Rosh Hashanah for services…
Despite widespread perceptions, Israeli Jews aren’t becoming more antagonistic toward Israeli Arabs. So concludes a new survey that also shows how Israeli Arab attitudes toward Jews have turned harsher. The past four years have seen a wave of legislation that many Arabs and civil rights advocates view as attacks on the civil rights of Israel’s…
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman, to discuss the ongoing Israel-Palestine peace negotiations and what the negotiators are eating for dinner. Then, former Forward staffer Allison Yarrow calls in to discuss her new ebook on the trial of Satmar sexual abuser, Nechemya Weberman and…
Mommy blogs are nothing new. The blogosphere is full of sites written by self-proclaimed happy mommies, designer mommies, vodka-drinking mommies, redneck mommies, “scary,” sarcastic mommies and even “stark raving mad” mommies. Now there’s a new kind of mommy blogger joining their ranks: the Israeli settler mommy. Mitnachalot Bareshet (Set on the Net), a new blog…
Two images attest to Sara Bloomfield’s success as director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — one clearly visible, the other hidden from sight. The obvious marker of Bloomfield’s success can be found daily alongside the museum’s starkly designed building, where, even 20 years after its opening, lengthy lines of visitors snake for blocks….
A real estate appraiser has been charged with a felony in the first criminal action to stem from the ongoing conflict over an Orthodox-dominated school board in upstate New York. Avi Vardi is charged with filing a false report in connection with his 2010 appraisal of an elementary school owned by the East Ramapo School…
