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…
When it comes to writing about grief, perspective is often a liability. Grieving is so smothering an experience that it’s almost impossible to conjure up from a distance. And yet so few people have the inclination or the presence of mind to document its intensity in real time. It’s no wonder that the best contemporary…
It’s an ideology with few followers among Israeli Jews, but activists for the one-state solution are reaching out to American visitors via tours of the Arab-Jewish town of Jaffa. And they are doing so with the help of Israel’s Reform movement. Jaffa, now part of the municipality of Tel Aviv, was a town in which…
It’s rare to find a novelist and Ivy League professor on a billboard in Times Square. Though Jeffrey Eugenides rises above Broadway in wind-blown clothes, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Middlesex” and “The Virgin Suicides” is a soft-spoken Michigan native who describes himself as equal parts hillbilly and Greek. In his new novel, “The…
Come and wait here, boys,” exclaimed an Arab man excitedly to a trio of American yeshiva bochers who study in Jerusalem. “It’s free and it’s fast — give it a try.” Jerusalem may suffer from bitter divisions, but where trains, engines and new technology are concerned, boys will be boys. And so, the Arab man…
Simmering divisions within the Jewish community are expected to come to a head this month over efforts to use federal civil rights laws to sanction some forms of alleged anti-Israel activity on campus. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, American Jewry’s primary umbrella group for addressing domestic issues, will vote at its upcoming board meeting…
In this week’s podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward editor Jane Eisner and web producer Nate Lavey to discuss the increased presence of Jewish activists within the ongoing Occupy Wall St. protests. Then Josh speaks with Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman about the political implications of Gilad Shalit’s impending release. Finally, staff writer Paul…
Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring Sets Up Shop in New York City’s Garment District The Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring marked a grand opening at its new home, on West 37th Street, with a celebration that was both historic and haimish. “I welcome you to our beautiful new home,” Allen Breslow, vice president for development, announced to the assembled…
Eight more suspects have been charged with taking part in a multimillion dollar fraud against the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, authorities announced today. The fraud investigation has focused on New York’s Russian-speaking community, which was stunned when 17 people, six Claims Conference employees in a New York processing office and 11 accomplices,…
The national umbrella organization for Jewish federations has removed harsh critics of Israel from an online voting contest designed to identify “heroes” within the Jewish community. One of the excluded nominees, Jewish Voice for Peace Deputy Director Cecilie Surasky, was among the top 10 vote getters in the Jewish Community Heroes contest when Jewish Federations…
“I am bringing #Gilad #Shalit home !” This sentence, awaited by millions for more than five years, was posted on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Twitter account, after the Shalit swap deal was approved by the Israeli cabinet, and following some earlier, less dramatic tweets on the subject. “This is a difficult decision to make, but…
