This is the Forward’s coverage of former U.S. president Barack Obama and his relationship to the Jewish community.
Barack Obama
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The Schmooze White House Switchboard Swamped With Calls for Pollard’s Temporary Release
Supporters of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard jammed the White House’s switchboard over the weekend, demanding his temporary release so that he could attend his father’s funeral today. Morris Pollard died at the age of 95 in South Bend, Ind., on the morning of Saturday, June 18. Angry that President Obama did not heed requests to…
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Opinion Backing Away from September
There are those who heard in Obama’s speech on the Middle East an attempt – as Mitt Romney elegantly put it – to throw Israel “under the bus” and those who thought it was just the same old steadfast support for Israeli positions that every American president expresses. Both sides, it’s clear, seem to only…
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The Schmooze Yiddish Songs and Workers’ Rights: Notes From the PJA Dinner
A couple of things became apparent during the Progressive Jewish Alliance’s annual gala in Los Angeles last week, factors which will surely shape the run-up to the 2012 election. These factors did not include the “Yiddish songs of the labor movement,” which were performed entertainingly enough by singer Cindy Paley as guests shmoozed pre-dinner, but…
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Opinion Mofaz Calls Bibi Out on Ynet (Hebrew Only — Why Isn’t It Translated…?)
Shaul Mofaz, the chairman of the Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, wrote an op-ed essay on the Ynet Hebrew website on Wednesday May 25, savagely summing up Netanyahu’s American visit. Strangely, it doesn’t appear on the English site. In fact, it’s not so strange—the English site’s opinion section carries mostly right-wing material (Obama vs….
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The Schmooze Rocker Gene Simmons Not a Fan of Obama’s Israel Policy
It appears that President Obama can cross “Rock and Roll All Night” off his list of potential 2012 campaign songs. The president’s recent speeches on Israel have made a critic of KISS rocker Gene Simmons, who implied on CNBC that Obama has “no [expletive] idea” about how to solve the Arab-Israeli impasse. “If you’ve never…
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Opinion Abe Gets Hate Mail, Bibi’s 3 Whoppers and an Optimistic (Yes!) Reading of the Situation
Barack and Bibi: An Optimistic Reading According to a very reliable source, Abraham Foxman got an e-mail the other day, lamenting the fact that Hitler didn’t get him, apparently because of the Anti-Defamation League’s statement praising President Obama’s Middle East speech. I didn’t call for confirmation because I didn’t want Abe to ask me not…
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News Bibi and Obama Now Set To Battle for Congress, Public Opinion
President Obama’s declaration affirming the significance of Israel’s 1967 borders in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations is animated in no small part by the need to face the challenge of a looming UN General Assembly vote recognizing Palestine as an independent state, the White House has told Jewish leaders. In an off-the-record conference call after Obama’s May…
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Opinion A Personal Meditation on Meeting Lewis Black and Having an Inexplicable Out-of-Body Experience
I participated in a group blog called Rethinking Religion at Columbia University’s Institute for Religion, Culture & Public Life. They asked me to go and hear comedian Lewis Black get interviewed by the institute’s director, Mark Taylor, and then write a reaction. The interview took place at the Kraft Center for Jewish Life, which has…
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