As Shira Ruskay was dying of cancer in 1997, Debbie Friedman, whose concert schedule was crowded with gigs around the country, kept another, more intimate commitment in Manhattan, with unfailing regularity. ?Once a month we gathered with Debbie, and she uniquely wove together prayer and Torah,? recalled Ruskay?s husband, John Ruskay, executive vice president of…
Irving Moskowitz, the Florida businessman and champion of right-wing causes in Israel, is also a big donor for the incoming Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Laura Rozen in Politico reported Monday that Moskowitz and his wife donated in this past election cycle $9,600 to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who this week assumed the chairmanship…
If an American communist website publishes a statement issued by a Palestinian terrorist group, has the communist website committed a crime? That?s a question that some Midwestern activists could face as grand jury hearings approach for members of pro-Palestinian and left-wing groups who have received subpoenas in recent months from federal prosecutors. The exact nature…
Lior Lev Sercarz has one seriously impressive spice cabinet. Since 2006, he has delivered the best salts, peppers and cinnamons, along with 120 other herbs and spices from around the globe, to chefs and home cooks alike through his company, La Boîte à Epice. The company, which crafts custom spice blends, is the realization of…
Gal Beckerman?s comprehensive history of the popular movement to save Soviet Jews in the latter half of the 20th century is the winner of the Jewish Book of the Year Award, the Jewish Book Council announced January 11. ?When They Come for Us, We?ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle To Save Soviet Jewry,? written by…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to extend a freeze on the advancement of a controversial civil conversion bill that was proposed by the Yisrael Beiteinu party last year. In exchange for the extended moratorium, the Reform and Conservative movements agreed to hold off on their petitions to the High Court of Justice on the…
Singer and songwriter Debbie Friedman, who died January 9 of pneumonia, wrote this letter to Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered in 2002 on assignment in Pakistan. In it she expresses her own deep connection to her faith. It was published in the 2005 anthology “I Am a Jew: Personal Reflections…
Deborah Lynn Friedman, the beloved and influential composer and singer who transformed contemporary American Jewish prayer and music, died Sunday of complications of pneumonia. She would have turned 60 in February. Friedman, known to everyone as “Debbie,” had been hospitalized for the past week in an Orange County, Calif. hospital after falling ill while at…
The synagogue where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is a member held a healing service in her honor Sunday — one day after the Arizona congresswoman was shot in the head outside of Tucson supermarket. She had been meeting with constituents at the time of the attack, which killed six and wounded 14. Giffords, 40, remained in…
Gabrielle Giffords, who in 2007 became Arizona’s first Jewish congresswoman, was shot in the head Saturday outside of a Tucson, Ariz. supermarket. As of Saturday afternoon, the congresswoman had survived surgery, and was being transferred to an intensive care unit. The attack took place while Giffords, a Democrat, was meeting with constituents in her home…
The ramifications of New York State’s decision to slash its kosher enforcement division, and the controversy over the death of a Palestinian protester, allegedly as a result of Israel’s use of tear gas are the subjects of this week’s Reporters’ Roundtable. News editor Larry Cohler-Esses and Devra Ferst, who edits the Forward’s food blog, The…
דאָס בוך איז גרונטיק געפֿאָרשט, לעבעדיק אָנגעשריבן — אָבער אידעאָלאָגיש באַפֿאַרבט
