Facing a looming deadline to pay off $30 million in tax-exempt bonds, the Center for Jewish History has raised every dollar needed to settle its outstanding debt, the organization’s leadership announced on January 24. It is no small accomplishment for any not-for-profit in the current economic climate, particularly for one that, in recent years, has…
Asked as a young man what he specialized in, Daniel Bell, a member of the second generation of New York intellectuals who came bursting out of City College in the 1930s blurted out, “I specialize in generalizations!” It was said with youthful intellectual exuberance at first, and then wryly repeated as the years wore on…
My mom’s 1972 copy of “Portal to Good Cooking” hadn’t been opened for a while. Like, decades. I found it in the back of a kitchen cabinet when I was home for a visit to Chicago last December, and decided to bring it to New York with me, since my mom no longer cooks. What…
It seems to be the perfect companion for traveling in Israel: a tour guide that comes with an “off” switch. Last November, Israel’s Tourism Ministry launched a free iPhone and iPad application that identifies your location anywhere in the country and suggests nearby sites and attractions to visit, providing the contact details for each one…
We know about the falling out between the dovish J Street lobby and prized endorsee Rep. Gary Ackerman. Now, after both sides articulated their positions at length (to recap: Ackerman basically said J Street lost its brains, and J Street responded that Ackerman didn’t understand its positions) — it is time to calm down. And…
Makes 3 dozen cookies Baker’s Note: Be sure that the cream cheese is well softened before creaming it with the butter. Let it stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours. Use full-fat cheese. 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into ½-inch cubes 8 ounces cream cheese, softened, cut into…
In this week’s Reporters’ Roundtable, Josh Nathan-Kazis speaks with Forward editor Jane Eisner and staff reporter Gal Beckerman about the recent leak of internal documents from the Palestinian negotiating team, and the Forward’s posthumous profile of Samuel T. Cohen — the eccentric Jewish physicist who invented the neutron bomb. Subscribe to Forward podcasts on iTunes
J Street has lost one of its key supporters in Congress, as New York Democrat Gary Ackerman announced he is disassociating himself from the group because of their stance on condemning Israel’s settlement activity in the UN General Assembly. Now, while it is true that J Street’s power in Congress isn’t judged by one member’s…
In the 20th century, Jews created bombs. Weapons of mass destruction. Most famously, there was J. Robert Oppenheimer who ran the Manhattan Project, which gave the world the atom bomb. After him came Edward Teller, the Hungarian Jew who engineered an incredibly destructive upgrade: the hydrogen bomb. And then there was Samuel T. Cohen, the…
A video clip produced last October by the American Jewish Committee aimed to explain the reason for the repeated failures of the Middle East peace process. “The one word that frustrated over 60 years of hope for peace: no,” the clip stated, going on to detail Israeli peace efforts in the past two decades while…
It is, perhaps, only in America that a congresswoman named Gabrielle Giffords could reclaim the Jewish identity of her father’s family — originally named Hornstein — after living much of her life apart from the Jewish community. And it is no less of a tribute to American fluidity, however ironic, that the aide who died…
