Former President Moshe Katsav began a seven-year prison sentence on Wednesday, following his conviction of two counts of rape and other sexual offenses. The former president was accompanied by family members, entering the Ma’asiyahu facility at 10:08 A.M. Prior to arriving at the central-Israel prison, Katsav addressed media representatives outside his Kirayt Malakhi home, where…
U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman may not have been quoted correctly. But his November 30 comments about Muslim anti-Semitism have now gone beyond serving as Republican ammunition against the Obama administration and spilled over to include criticism from Democrats and Jewish organizations. To be sure, Republicans were the first to blast the diplomat after…
Samuel Lewis’s career in the U.S. foreign service spanned more than three decades, but for all those involved in the Middle East peace process, Lewis will always be the U.S. ambassador to Israel, a position he filled in 1977, and during which he played a pivotal role in brokering Israel’s first peace accord, with Egypt….
‘It’s comin’ on Christmas / They’re cuttin’ down trees / They’re putting up reindeer / And singing songs of joy and peace.…” I grew up obsessed with Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” album, lustily singing along with every track, mournfully noting how sad it was that she made her baby cry, during Christmas of all times. So…
Mexico in December overflows with Christmas spirit. Virtually every home boasts a nativity scene and pots planted with bright-red poinsettias. And on Christmas Eve, families follow the solemn midnight Mass with a festive party filled with delicious food and a piñata for the kids. Unlike in America, where Hanukkah has become its own commercial and…
Backtracking on an earlier commitment, Israel will delay by at least one year completion of its admission of some 4,000 Ethiopian Jews already approved for entry, some of whom have been waiting since 1991 to immigrate there. The government has instructed the Jewish Agency for Israel to reduce the flow of Ethiopian immigrants to only…
Some Jewish groups and others were demanding Sunday that United States President Barak Obama take action against his ambassador to Belgium, following comments the envoy made to the effect that Israel’s political positions serve as some sort of explanation for anti-Semitism amongst Muslims. Ambassador Howard Gutman, who is Jewish, made the controversial remarks at a…
When Poland’s new Sejm, or Parliament, was seated recently, the nationally televised event showed something never before seen in this conservative nation: a transsexual woman and an openly gay man being solemnly sworn in along with other parliamentarians. The seminal event was a consequence of the emergence of Palikot, a new, explicitly anti-clerical, libertarian-oriented party…
The Jewish community reacted with a mix of disappointment and relief when the much-hyped congressional supercommittee announced that it couldn’t reach a deal on debt reduction. On the one hand, Jewish organizations hoped for a bipartisan plan that would address the nation’s growing debt. But on the other hand, some groups worried that the budget-cutting…
The Doors Are Open to All at Rabin Medical Center in Israel Dinner “When a patient checks in, no one asks their religion [or] affiliation,” said Abraham “Barry” Cohen, chairman of the American Friends of Rabin Medical Center, in an address at the organization’s November 13 “The Best of New York Meets the Best of…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward opinion editor Gal Beckerman and Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman to discuss why America’s foreign military aid to Israel is threatened by the Congressional super-committee’s failure to come to a debt deal. Then the group turns to a recent series of advertisements produced by the…
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