For 125 years, the Forward has delivered accurate, timely and nuanced news to American Jews. From breaking news to in-depth investigations, our reporting team covers the people, institutions and issues that define the many ways to be Jewish in the…
News
-
Mideast Envoy George Mitchell Resigns, Amid Frustration, Turf Wars
Ending a lengthy and unsuccessful drive for Israeli–Arab peace, George Mitchell is stepping down as the Obama administration’s special envoy for the Middle East. The White announced the former Maine senator’s resignation on Friday, pointing to “personal reasons” for his decision to end his role as negotiator. “As he returns to his family, George leaves…
-
Reporters’ Roundtable: Bibi’s Speech; Meet the Ratners
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s forthcoming speech before the U.S. Congress, the growing spotlight on the Ratner real estate family in light of a recent indictment of a New York state senator, and a Brighton Beach, Brooklyn gathering of Jewish veterans who served in the Soviet armed forces during World War II are the topics of…
-
A Poet of Jewish Spiritual Life and World Literature
Maybe it’s a sgule — a remedy prescription, for long life — to become a Yiddish writer. Itche Goldberg and Mordkhe Tsanin both died at the ripe old age of 102 a few years ago; poet Avrom Sutskever died in 2010 at 96. Now the New York Yiddish world has lost another wonderful poet, Jeremiah…
The Latest
-
Shtume Shprakh (Mute Language)
Shtume Shprakh (Mute Language) (originally in sonnet form) I looked around — and saw that half of my years are fading on the dirt road; that over my life, there closes, from my burial shroud, the first pale fold. So I doubled up like a swallow, that no longer finds her nest under the roof….
-
Whitman In Yiddish, Soon Posted Online
Perhaps the greatest American poet ever to have lived, Walt Whitman was not always regarded as such. Thanks, in part, to the emergence of modernist forms in poetry toward the end of the 19th century, Whitman’s work did not attract critical attention until after his death in 1892. But for Jewish immigrant poets living in…
-
A Brash Poet Who Started a Movement
Yankev Glatshteyn (Jacob Glatstein) was born in Lublin, Poland, in 1896 to a religious family. In 1914, he immigrated to the United States under the pretense of enrolling in law school but almost immediately dropped out and became involved with the burgeoning Yiddish poetry scene in New York City’s Lower East Side, where he would…
-
In Fatah-Hamas Deal, What Role for Salam Fayyad?
It may turn out to be one of the strangest political revivals on record — a comeback without the protagonist having gone anywhere. In the hours and days after the Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas hammered out a unity agreement for governing the West Bank and Gaza in late April, media reports presented Palestinian Prime…
-
Kushner Foe In Biggest Brawl of His Long Career
For City University of New York trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, the furor over his recent push to deny playwright Tony Kushner an honorary degree because of his views on Israel is just the latest in a career full of high-profile public brawls. The son of two Holocaust survivors, Wiesenfeld, 52, grew up on East Tremont Avenue…
-
Bibi Prepares To Address a Friendly Congress, an Impatient White House
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to Congress on May 24, he will be appearing in front of some of his greatest fans in the United States. But his remarks will be addressing the Obama administration, a much more critical constituency. It’s a dual audience whose diverse stances toward him are likely to impact…
-
For Surviving Soviet Veterans, Victory Day Is a Dying Celebration
Their gold and silver medals glinting in the late morning sun, David Rosenberg, Victor Levinson and Mikhail Rabkin stood among a small group of men on Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach Avenue, dressed in their finest clothes. On that day, May 9, across the former Soviet Union their comrades-in-arms were being feted as heroes in grandiose Victory…
-
From Humble Lumber Sellers to Clout-Wielding Developers: An Immigrant Tale
When federal prosecutors charged New York State Senator Carl Kruger with taking more than $1 million in bribes in March, few were surprised to see seven others indicted with him. The colorful Kruger, who represents the heavily Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brighton Beach, Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay, has long attracted media attention for high-profile deal-making…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
- 2
Fast Forward Tucker Carlson calls for stripping citizenship from Americans who served in the Israeli army
- 3
Opinion This German word explains Trump’s authoritarian impulses — and Hitler’s rise to power
- 4
Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
In Case You Missed It
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
