Lev Grossman does not tire of his best-selling fantasy novels being called “Harry Potter for adults.” While “Potter” is marketed to children and happens to attract adult readers, “The Magicians” (Viking, 2009) and its new follow-up, “The Magician King,” are designed for adults. The books are filled with drinking, cursing and sex, and, things aren’t…
An estimated 450,000 Israelis were marching across the country as part of the ‘March of the Million,’ a rally which organizers hope will grow to be the biggest social protest in Israel’s history. According to initial estimates more than 300,000 people amassed in Tel Aviv’s Kikar Hamedina square, where the central event is currently taking…
In a contest pitting two of Congress’ most influential Jewish Democrats against one another, Rep. Howard Berman has received the blessings of five top California Democrats in his bid to return to Washington as lawmaker for the San Fernando Valley’s newly created 30th Congressional District. Berman’s coup comes on the heels of Rep. Brad Sherman’s…
This week, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward opinion editor Gal Beckerman and Forward contributor Joseph Dana, of the Israeli news site +972, to discuss a developing rift amongst Israeli and international activists who are concerned that the J14 protests have failed to address the Occupation of Palestinian territories. Then the group is joined…
Editor’s Note: This column by our Philologos ran in July. We are reposting it now because the diplomatic tussle between Turkey and Israel has escalated. Turkey and Israel, we are told, have been trying to bury the hatchet over the Mavi Marmara incident. The main sticking point, it now seems, is the Turkish insistence that…
The planned closing of a venerable Lower East Side nursing home founded by a coalition of the neighborhood’s storied landsmanshaftn, or Jewish mutual aid societies, has sparked protests and allegations of self-enrichment and mismanagement by the home’s board. The Bialystoker Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, founded 80 years ago by immigrants from the Polish city…
In the half-light of dawn, 16 families huddle on benches in the early morning chill, waiting patiently for their journey to a new and unimaginable life. They sit in a courtyard, hidden from the view of friends and relatives who have come to say farewell, behind the modest local offices of the Jewish Agency for…
In June, after a year of internal discussion, Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, a Conservative synagogue just outside Philadelphia, made a tiny amendment to its constitution: It redefined household membership to apply to families with one Jewish parent as well as those with two. Though the amendment impacted a small number of intermarried congregants —some 10…
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My fetish for Jewish men and my conversion to Judaism are like the chicken-egg question. Or, as my tribe would say, the tarnegolet-baitzah question. Which came first? My desire to sleep with a Jew or to become one? Growing up as a gentile blondie in Kentucky, foot-washing Christians at public school said Jews killed Jesus…
