The Israeli government chose to show its friendly face to the Reform movement by sending defense minister Ehud Barak as the top Israeli representative to the biennial conference of the Union for Reform Judaism. Barak meet with President Barack Obama for 30 minutes at the conference center. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that…
In this week’s podcast, host Naomi Zeveloff is joined by Forward reporter Paul Berger to discuss why Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is refusing to release the names of nearly 90 Orthodox Jews who have been arrested on sex abuse chargesin the past three years. Then, Paul reveals why there are thousands of girls named…
Paula Hyman, a pioneering historian of modern Jews, published “My Life as a Radical Jewish Woman” in 2001. Without its subtitle, “Memoirs of a Zionist Feminist in Poland,” it could stand as an apt characterization of Paula herself. The Yale University historian chose to edit the English translation of Puah Rakovsky’s Yiddish memoir because she…
Law enforcement officials, legal experts, advocates and politicians have questioned why Brooklyn’s District Attorney arrested 85 Orthodox adults on child sex abuse charges but refuses to release their names. In just three years, District Attorney Charles Hynes has arrested 83 Orthodox men and two women on charges including sexual abuse, attempted kidnapping and sodomy. But…
100 Years Ago in the Forward News from the Yiddish theater world indicates that bigwig actor/directors David Kessler and Boris Thomashefsky are attempting to form a “theater trust,” which would control all Yiddish theaters in New York City. This could be a troubling development for Yiddish theater as a whole, since moving pictures are horning…
CELEBRATING THE RENEWAL OF ISRAEL’S BEIT HATFUTSOT MUSEUM OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE The Beit Hatfutsot gala on December 1 was a feast for the eyes and the soul as 500 guests gathered at the Mandarin Oriental to celebrate the Museum of the Jewish People’s future as an interactive hub of Jewish culture. Alfred Moses, a…
Say this about Rabbi Eric Yoffie: He goes where others have not. In 2006, he went to that bastion of Christian fundamentalism, the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, and reminded the students of the religious values he shares with them, and the ones (reproductive rights, gay rights) that he does not. Then, in 2007, he…
The Forward’s third annual survey of 76 national Jewish organizations paints a picture of communal stagnation in gender equality, as the number of women in leadership roles remains at the same low level, and the gap between male and female salaries has grown even larger. Despite the dismal economy, half of the leaders in the…
One of the major artists of the American Yiddish cultural world and an innovator in the art of Jewish papercutting, Tsirl Waletzky, died on December 8 at the age of 90. Over three decades, her many drawings, paintings and papercuts illustrated book covers, Yiddish children’s magazines, primers and textbooks, becoming nearly synonymous with the art…
In Texas, Republican state officials have recently gone to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend their plan to break up a heavily minority state Senate district. At the same time, in New York, state Republicans are reportedly pushing a plan to consolidate another minority — Brooklyn Orthodox Jews — in just such a district. It’s…
Newt Gingrich, the GOP presidential primary frontrunner, derides the U.S. State Department as “incapable of articulating the cause of freedom.” Former Senator Rick Santorum threatened to take a “meat ax” to it as his first order of business if elected president. And Rep. Michele Bachmann, another GOP presidential hopeful, called on it to more forcefully…
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