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
-
Sephardi Spices in the Sultan’s Shadow
Selin Rozanes’s family, like most Sephardim in Turkey, likely came to the country in the late 15th century, when Jews were expelled from Spain. Sultan Bayezid II welcomed these exiled Jews into the Ottoman Empire at the time, where they would end up living, and cooking, alongside native Turks. Today, Rozanes helps to preserve the…
-
N.Y. Jewish Population Grows to 1.5M: Study
The Jewish population of the New York City area grew to 1.5 million in the past decade, driven by rapid growth among the Orthodox that is quickly transforming the face of the biggest Jewish community in the country, according to a landmark study released on June 12. More than six out of ten Jewish children…
-
The Ladies in Grey and Blue
About 10,000 Jewish men fought in the Civil War, for both the Union and Confederate armies. When these soldiers set off for battle, they left behind their wives, sisters and daughters, who stayed to raise the children and run the households and, sometimes, the family businesses. But not all these women stayed focused on only…
The Latest
-
U.S. Senate Wades Into Thorny ‘Refugee’ Question
Palestinian refugees, longtime pawns in regional and international struggles, have recently become a factor in American politics, as well. An attempt by the U.S. Senate to define who exactly can be counted as a Palestinian refugee has pitted congressional Republicans and some Israel advocates against the Obama administration. The measure, an amendment to the defense…
-
Lone Struggle To Keep Tunisian Cemetery Alive
Video: Nate Lavey After years of decay and neglect, the Jewish cemetery in Tunis is overgrown, unkempt and could be declared ‘abandoned’ by the Tunisian government a status that could result in its redevelopment. The fate of the cemetery rests on a few caretakers like Joseph Krief, a native-born Tunisian Jew, who has tried for…
-
U.S. Military Clean Auschwitz Jewish Cemetery
A group of cadets and midshipmen from U.S. military academies are cleaning up a Jewish cemetery near Auschwitz as part of a Holocaust education initiative. The 14 students from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard cleared weeds and brush this week in the Jewish cemetery in Oswiecim, the town outside of which Auschwitz…
-
Voodoo and Grave-Selling Irk Cemeteries
At a recent annual convention for Jewish cemetery officials, a New York State cemetery regulator asked attendees to share cemeteries’ biggest problems. One Connecticut cemetery manager talked about occult practitioners leaving sewn-up cow tongues and mutilated chickens around the graves. Another mentioned cash-strapped people seeking to disinter their dead parents so that they could sell…
-
Jewish Cemetery Head Earns Fat Salary
Ask those in the know who the highest paid executives at Jewish not-for-profits are, and you are likely to hear about salaries at groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesenthal Center or any number of big-city Jewish federations. But as it turns out, a Jewish executive at a not-for-profit cemetery in northern New…
-
Tunisian Jews Seek Place in New Order
Video: Nate Lavey A year and a half after the ouster of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president of the Tunisian Jewish community is wistful for the one-party government that ruled the country for decades. “You cannot find a better government than what we had,” said Roger Bismuth, who has held the…
-
Conservatives Skip Kiddushin in Gay Rite
In their recent crafting of gay and lesbian marital rites, three Conservative rabbis altered the most fundamental piece of the traditional Jewish marriage ceremony: the liturgy of kiddushin. But rather than feel excluded, some gay Jews say they are relieved to be exempt from kiddushin, the part of the ceremony in which one partner —…
-
Uncertainty in Tunisia, Jewish Crypt Tales
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis talks with Nate Lavey about his recent trip to Tunisia and the status of the country’s Jews. Then, Josh reports back on his recent trip to a cemetery convention where concerns ranged from how to handle trusts to missing bodies, voodoo and cow tongues. Finally, editor Jane Eisner…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News How Jewish can you be in a Boca country club? Wrapping tefillin got a family suspended, lawsuit says
- 2
News An Alabama millionaire offered Jews $50,000 to move to his town. 16 years later, what’s left?
- 3
Opinion Trump is forcing liberal Zionists to confront an extraordinarily inconvenient truth
- 4
Culture Why is Israel’s attack on Iran called ‘Rising Lion’ — and what does the Bible have to do with it?
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish World Yiddish poetry is coming to Yeshivat Hadar
-
Fast Forward Iranian missile strikes Israeli hospital as Trump remains coy about whether US will intervene
-
Opinion When it comes to regime change in Iran, Jews should be careful what they wish for
-
Fast Forward Once the poster child of the yeshiva reform movement, he now has regrets
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
