A Bad Date With Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert Image by Getty Images
Ehud Olmert Image by Getty Images
Bar-Hillel writes that she would be happy to see Olmert, who was also at one time mayor of Jerusalem, behind bars for his corrupt behavior while in office. Unfortunately for her, she will not see her wish come true, as Olmert has managed to avoid a trip to the slammer after trials for two different corruption scandals. He was sentenced on Monday in Jerusalem District Court only to one to three years probation and was given a $19,000 fine in one case. Earlier this year he was acquitted on charges in the other.
Even during this season or repentance, Bar-Hillel can recall nothing positive to say about the young Olmert she went out with on a blind date set up by mutual friends in 1969. She describes him then as “a thin chap with thinning hair, for which he seemed too young, and terrible acne, for which he seemed too old.” Even his apparent intelligence was not a turn-on. She doesn’t recall whether he was wearing any aftershave, but “there was about him a stench of raw ambition which I found overwhelming and fatally unattractive.”
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
