Benzion Netanyahu, the father of Israel’s prime minister, who died on April 30 at the age of 102, belonged to that generation of Jewish scholars who believed that what they studied, wrote about and taught had an importance that transcended academic interests. These learned individuals imagined that what they had discovered not only shed light…
On April 19, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research launched its “Treasures From the YIVO Archives” series at the Center for Jewish History. This first event included a panel discussion of — and readings from — a recently rediscovered memoir by Tuvia Bielski, leader of the Bielski partisans. Given to YIVO in 1955, the unsigned,…
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in late April, Israel put its raucous, divided political culture on full exhibition in New York for a day — and New York did not like what it saw. The occasion was the first-ever Jerusalem Post Conference, an all-day public seminar on Israeli policy, held on April 29 at Manhattan’s…
In their cautious dialogue with American Muslims, national Jewish groups have long steered clear of the Muslim Students Association, one of the biggest Muslim groups in the country and one that many Jewish communal officials see as extremist. But that red line is increasingly being ignored by Jewish students at colleges across the country, where…
You walk into the restaurant, and there, at the center of each table, is a help-yourself container of cocaine. Well, Jewish cocaine. Schmaltz. “People get a little confused,” explained David Zimmerman, owner of the uber-Jewish eatery Sammy’s Roumanian Steak House, on New York City’s Lower East Side. That is, diners understand the bowl of pickles…
A Facebook group is calling for a boycott of the popular Israeli singer Noa. More than 3,500 members have signed on to the group, which launched following her performance last week at an alternative Memorial Day event for bereaved Jewish and Palestinian families. Many of the members have called the singer insulting names playing off…
The tiny population of religious Jews in prison has plenty of company when it comes to keeping kosher behind bars. A number of secular Jews, messianic Jews, Black Hebrew Israelites and, in many cases, people with no Jewish background at all eat a traditional Jewish diet. Jews, according to one estimate, make up just one-sixth…
Few were surprised when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel’s Supreme Court that his government was unable to comply with the court’s May 1 deadline to demolish a group of illegal, exclusively Jewish apartment buildings in the occupied West Bank. The government petition, which asked the court to delay the scheduled evacuation of 30 homes…
No occasion drags formality out of Jewish humorist Dan Zevin. Instead, when the Forward called to interview him at the set time of 10 a.m. on a Sunday, he was dripping wet. “Actually, I’m just getting out of the shower and walking down the hall to my office,” he confessed. “You know what? Let me…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis talks with Forward editor Jane Eisner about the Forward’s updating of the [Israeli national anthem,][1] “Hatikvah.” Then, staff writer Paul Berger comes in to discuss why Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is refusing to release the names of Orthodox Jews accused, or even convicted, of sexually abusing children….
Detroit Tigers outfielder Delmon Young was arrested outside of a New York hotel for allegedly attacking a group of men and making anti-Semitic remarks. Young was arrested early Friday morning outside of the Hilton in Midtown Manhattan, where he was staying before a series with the New York Yankees begins on Friday night. According to…
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