Millions of documents that together tell a huge part of the American Jewish story are about to find a new public home after almost a decade kept out of sight. The American Jewish Archives, in Cincinnati, has acquired B’nai B’rith’s International’s extensive archive, a “treasure trove” of documents that dates back more than 150 years…
Ted Comet was missing something. He had the Jewish day schools and the youth groups lined up. But in 1968, you couldn’t have a parade without marching bands, and Comet knew that his pro-Israel promenade up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue would feel flat without a few dozen tubas. Jewish day schools, however, didn’t field marching bands….
Click to enlarge. New York City’s Celebrate Israel Parade is one of a kind. An annual Zionist promenade up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, the 47-year-old festival is a Jewish take on the classic New York City ethnic parade. There’s nothing else quite like it in the country. In fact, it’s probably the biggest annual celebration of…
A botched prostitution case against four black Crown Heights men accused of forcing an Orthodox Jewish woman into sex slavery has led to the resignation of a top prosecutor. Lauren Hersh, the head of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s sex trafficking unit, resigned from her position May 24, just a month after two of the men…
When Molly Moses graduated from Harvard University in 2011, she wanted to pray each day wearing tefillin. But she couldn’t afford the several hundred dollar investment required to buy a pair of the leather-covered boxes, which contain tiny parchments with handwritten Torah verses. Moses had borrowed tefillin from friends in the past; now she wanted…
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes says he is pushing for passage of a new state law to force rabbis to report child sex allegations to authorities. But lawmakers say Hynes has joined the legislative fray late in the state capital of Albany, and time is running out for any measure to pass this year. “If…
Brooklyn’s embattled district attorney Charles Hynes sharply criticized an ultra-Orthodox umbrella group and launched a fierce defense of his record in prosecuting child sex abuse during a landmark interview with the Forward. Sitting in the 14th floor corner office of his downtown Brooklyn headquarters, Hynes said he was in “sharp disagreement” with Agudath Israel of…
A $1 million state-funded program that will place 150 security cameras in Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods will be run by community volunteers and not by the police. The Leiby Kletzky Security Initiative, named after the 8-year-old Brooklyn boy who was kidnapped and murdered last year, will position high-tech security cameras near schools, synagogues and street…
At first glance, it looked like any other professional conference. But when Israel’s biomedical industry descended on Tel Aviv for its annual gathering May 21, there was one key difference: the gender mix. The biomed industry — which pioneers and produces medical devices, equipment and drugs — is booming in Israel, where there are more…
The 14th Street Y, one of New York’s most prominent Jewish institutions, has cancelled an event by a group advocating a partial boycott of Israel. The Y’s management told the youth wing of Jewish Voice for Peace that it was concerned about large crowds at the planned May 27 meeting, but the group believes it…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis talks with staff writer Paul Berger about the controversial position held by the Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel on reporting child sex abuse. Then, Josh talks with Forward contributor Dvora Meyers about a series of blog posts debating whether Hasidic women can be considered ‘liberated.’ Finally, we say…
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