In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward editor at large J.J. Goldberg to discuss why the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is sending out emails critical of the deal to free Gilad Shalit. Then, David A.M. Wilensky of the Jewish student magazine New Voices lays out why some…
It took a friend to bring to my attention President Obama?s recent and underreported slip of the tongue, made during an address to the Congressional Black Caucus on September 24, in which he confused the words ?janitor? and ?Jew.? Though mentioned on the Forward?s Shmooze blog, the media made scant mention of the incident for…
At the Downtown Manhattan base camp of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, young Lubavitchers filter through the activist crowd, seeking Jews. But when one approached Kobi Skolnick, a 30-year-old Israeli with a heavy Hebrew accent, Skolnick lied. “No, I’m Palestinian!” he told the lulav-bearing Lubavitcher. Skolnick is, in fact, Jewish. And not only that…
About a month after her father passed away in 2006, Linda Cohen awoke in the middle of the night with an idea. Cohen had been looking for a better way to grieve for her father, one that would both honor his generosity and improve the world around her — something that went beyond saying Kaddish…
There is always that question of what the shtetl Jews who populate the stories of writers like Sholom Aleichem might think about a transgender folk-punk band named Schmekel, which will be appearing October 29 at the Nehirim Queer Shabbaton, at the JCC in Manhattan. Bands like Schmekel, which uses Yiddish as an alternative culture to…
Once known for their work together on civil rights, African Americans and Jews have experienced decades of contention over a range of issues since the 1960s. But now, some in the pro-Israel community see an opportunity to reconstitute a black-Jewish alliance centered on Israel. With the coming of age of a new generation of black…
For the Torah Shall Go Forth to Zuccotti Park, and the Word of God to Wall Street By David A.M. Wilensky Jews of my parents? generation were broadly involved in the protests of their youth: marching in Selma, Ala; riding for freedom; marching on Washington. Given that, the attempt by the establishment and by politically…
Noam Shalit, father of the recently released Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, spoke to the press near his home in Mitzpe Hila on Tuesday night, saying that his son had finally returned home after a long and exhausting battle. Gilad Shalit returned to Israel for the first time on Tuesday since he was abducted by Hamas…
If you’re a “woman of a certain age” in Israel, you don’t have a straightforward term like “menopause” to refer to that stage of life. In Hebrew you’re stuck with gil ha’blut, which translates roughly to “the age of worn out.” In Arabic it’s sinn al-ya’s — “the age of despair.” So when Dana Weinberg…
Last month, a fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney made manifest what insiders have long known to be true: Romney, currently seen as the Republican frontrunner, is the hands down favorite of the Republican Jewish establishment. The September 26 fundraiser, held in the New York law office of longtime Republican activist Philip Rosen, was…
Uri Ehrenfeld knew exactly how Gilad Shalit felt as the pale and scrawny soldier strode to freedom on Israeli soil October 18 after five years in captivity. Ehrenfeld, who spent months in captivity during the Yom Kippur War, relived his own rush of emotions when he watched Shalit hug his father and return to a…
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