Vladka Meed, one of the last surviving leaders of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, died in Phoenix on November 21 just before her 91st birthday. Born Feyge Peltel in Praga (a district of Warsaw, Poland,) she joined the youth arm of the Jewish Labor Bund at age 14 and was thereafter a Bund activist through the…
Gazans savoured the calm that pervaded their coastal enclave on Thursday after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire halted eight days of relentless Israeli bombardment that killed 162 people. Despite the death and destruction, many were buoyant, echoing assertions of the Gaza Strip’s Islamist Hamas rulers that their rocket salvoes, which reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the…
The Zionist Organization of America has fired an internal critic who aired concerns about the way the group has handled the recent revocation of its tax-exempt status and who referred to herself as a whistleblower in internal memos. Orit Arfa, the Los Angeles-based executive director of the ZOA’s Western Region, confirmed to the Forward that…
New York yeshiva students received almost $9 million in state grants during the first half of 2012, thanks to a recent change in state law that made them eligible for the first time for a state-funded financial aid program. The students, who were previously barred from receiving funds offered by New York State’s Tuition Assistance…
The campaign to free Alan Gross, a Jewish contract worker jailed in Cuba for almost three years, has dramatically ramped up since President Obama’s reelection. But experts warn that the latest salvos in the battle to free Gross, led by his wife, Judy, and a prominent human rights lawyer, are scattershot and potentially counterproductive. “There…
They pick through the tangled foliage, Orthodox men with long beards and black kipahs, wearing white gloves and bright yellow vests, searching for body parts. A few yards over and four stories up, construction workers drive drills into a bombed apartment building. They speak to each other in Arabic. Can they read the Hebrew banner…
America’s new political demography, as exposed by the 2012 presidential election results, has delivered a wake-up call to Jewish communal leaders. The rise in power of Latino voters, coupled with the continued increase in African-American participation and the greater attention paid to women voters, is compelling some Jewish leaders and analysts to reexamine communal coalition…
Pianist Yuja Wang Wows Crowd at Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Concert at Carnegie Hall “Zetst zikh avek!” — “Sit down!”— said Zubin Mehta, music director and conductor for life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in beautifully articulated Yiddish at the American Friends of the IPO dinner, held at The Plaza. The dinner followed the IPO’s October…
Beverly Hills police asked the public’s help in identifying people who placed a package covered in anti-Semitic text in front of a Chanel store. The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that police are searching for seven people believed connected to a package found in front of the Chanel store on Rodeo Drive that was at…
Jewish federation leaders are bracing for substantial cuts in government funding for the social services their agencies provide as attention turns toward deficit reduction following the presidential election. Just how much will depend on the outcome of the post-election debate now unfolding on President Obama’s proposal to increase tax rates on the wealthy to help…
I’ll always remember it because it was the first,” said Chana Lavaddin, 21, a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. In the way that some convey the minute details of their first sexual encounters, Lavaddin recalled the chapped skin and firm grip of the first man who shook her hand, a former professor congratulating her…
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