Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of former U.S. president Barack Obama and his relationship to the Jewish community.
Barack Obama
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Fast Forward Obama White House Freed Nuclear Smuggler In Iran Deal Trade-Off
(JTA) — The Obama administration’s January 2016 prisoner exchange with Iran allegedly involved dropping prosecutions against more Iranian fugitives than previously known, including a top procurer of material with nuclear applications. Some of the seven men freed in the exchange were accused by the Justice Department of posing threats to national security. In addition, the Justice…
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The Schmooze Inside The White House Correspondents’ Dinner With Obama’s Former Joke Writer
Barack Obama’s former speechwriter is opening up about what it was like writing jokes for the president — and his thoughts on Donald Trump skipping The White House Correspondents’ Dinner. David Litt, who currently heads the comedy series “Funny or Die” told Vulture that he balanced his formal speechwriting duties with writing quips for the…
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Opinion Spicer’s Holocaust Insult Just Trump’s Latest Jab At Jews
Earlier this week, Jews throughout the world gathered around dining room tables with family and friends to celebrate Passover. At the Seder meal, participants are made to feel they were slaves in Egypt by recalling one of humanity’s fundamental stories about freedom from oppression. The ancient Exodus story serves to remind us of the ongoing…
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Opinion IfNotNow Is The Jewish Black Lives Matter
I spent last Shabbat with students from Harvard Hillel and was reminded, again, how important a generational movement IfNotNow is becoming. I don’t think most older American Jews grasp it yet. This is our Black Lives Matter. IfNotNow is the Jewish wing of a youth-powered activist awakening that the United States has not seen since…
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Opinion Will Electing This Little-Known Jewish Democrat Stop Trump?
On the day before the first anniversary of Barack Obama’s first inauguration as president, voters in Massachusetts went to the polls in a special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy. By all logic, the Democratic candidate, state attorney general Martha Coakley, should have coasted to victory over her…
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Community Would Judaism Want Us To Repeal And Replace Obamacare?
As the battle for the future of American health care rages in Washington, I find myself eager to understand what the Jewish tradition has to say on the subject. Does our ancient tradition offer any wisdom that might shed some light on this complicated subject? Do Jewish values point us in one direction or the…
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News Meet Mark Levin, The Radio Host Behind Trump’s Bizarre ‘Obama Wiretapped Me’ Tweets
After President Trump alleged that predecessor Barack Obama tapped his phones during the election season, reporters and ordinary Americans were left scratching their heads as to where the unsubstantiated accusations came from. It turns out the story originated with radio host Mark Levin, a fixture of the conservative airwaves who first made the assertions on…
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Opinion Why Trump’s Latest ‘Raving’ Tweets About Obama Wiretap Might Be His Worst Blunder Yet
Donald Trump’s relatively calm and controlled speech to Congress last week caused several analysts, including this one, to wonder whether the President might turn a corner and henceforth stop his loony outbursts. It took only a day or two for Trump to respond with a resounding and emphatic “No!” His series of spectacularly raving tweets…
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Music For Bob Dylan’s biographer, ‘A Complete Unknown’ is a dream come true — even if it’s mostly fiction
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Culture They were a kosher bakery success story — 80 years later, people are still trying to make a buck off their babka
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Culture ‘A Complete Unknown’ proves that one thing about Bob Dylan will certainly endure
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Film & TV Why ‘The Brutalist’ resonated so deeply with me
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Yiddish World Frankie’s Menorah (a Yiddish Hanukkah story)
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