A New York suburb is divided over plans to absorb a private special education program for Yiddish and Hebrew speakers into the public school district — a plan that opponents say could be racially discriminatory. The proposal for the East Ramapo Central School District in Rockland County, N.Y., to take over the financially troubled Rockland…
As the 112th Congress gathers steam this month, a major immigration-rights bill, the DREAM Act — which enjoys broad Jewish support and passed in the lame duck Democratic House of Representatives last year — faces a cloudy future in the new Republican-majority House. Despite the more conservative Congress, as well as the previous Senate’s failure…
In Germany today, Muslims are often cited as a driving force behind contemporary German anti-Semitism — and are increasingly a target of ethnic-based prejudice and bigotry. Yet leaders of Germany’s Jewish community have joined others in combating what many view as a tidal wave of German Islamophobia. Though this is rich in irony, Jewish leaders…
The subjects of this week’s Reporters’ Roundtable are congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’s Jewish journey, and the growing tensions between the Obama administration’s top Mideast advisers, George Mitchell and Dennis Ross. Web editor Gabrielle Birkner and staff writer Nathan Guttman join host Josh Nathan-Kazis. Subscribe to Forward podcasts on iTunes
The pay gap between men and women in the Jewish communal workforce, what perpetuates this gap, and whether or not oral contraceptives have led to a fertility crisis are the subjects of the Women’s Roundtable. Forward editor Jane Eisner, Lilith editor Susan Weidman Schneider and Lilith associate editor Sonia Isard join host Gabrielle Birkner.
Celebrating Polish Composer Chopin’s Bicentennial Finale With Yulianna Avdeeva, Russian-Born Jewish Winner of International Chopin Competition Yulianna Avdeeva, born in 1985 in Moscow, was the first woman in 45 years to win the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, held in Warsaw in October 2010. On January 3, Avdeeva, who beat out nearly 80 competitors, was…
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process may be near collapse, but the Washington turf wars surrounding it are still going strong, according to sources involved in the negotiations. The administration’s top Middle East hands — special envoy George Mitchell and White House adviser Dennis Ross — are increasingly at loggerheads, these sources say. In the past month,…
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords invited her rabbi, Stephanie Aaron, to accompany her to this year’s National Prayer Breakfast, on February 3. Aaron plans to be in Washington for the gathering, but acknowledges she won’t likely be sitting alongside Giffords, her friend, congregant and student. The third-term Arizona Democrat was shot in the head, targeted while hosting…
With recent pronouncements from Orthodox authorities diverging in multiple directions, uncertainty reins on just when and under what conditions traditionally observant Jews may donate their vital organs to save others. Under strong fire, the country’s major Modern Orthodox rabbinic body is seeking to clarify its position on a study by its own authorities that is…
In this congregation, there is an excerpt from Psalms set to a tune the rabbi picked up in a French monastery; a prayer for peace in Arabic, contributed by a Malaysian Muslim and an annual expedition to a nearby home for the disabled, to spread cheer. Your typical Jerusalem synagogue it is not. In the…
Amid growing fury on the Israeli right toward the country’s human rights groups, the Knesset has approved two motions aimed at examining whether there are skeletons in NGO closets. The separate but similar motions, submitted by the Yisrael Beiteinu and Likud parties, mandate a Knesset investigation of funding sources of left-leaning nongovernmental organizations. The motions,…
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט
