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 ‘Jewish’ Golf Club Rolls Out Red Carpet for Barack Obama After All
(JTA) — The Woodmont Country Club, an exclusive, mostly Jewish golf club in Rockville, Maryland has invited former President Barack Obama to join after all. The club had been locked in a fierce debate over whether to admit Obama for membership because of what some called his bad relationship with Israel as president. In an email…
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Fast Forward Obama’s Last-Minute $221M Gift to Palestinians
(JTA) — The Obama administration reportedly sent $221 million to the Palestinian Authority on the morning of Donald Trump’s inauguration. The administration told Congress that it would send the funds hours before Trump was sworn in Friday, an anonymous State Department official and several congressional aides said, according to The Associated Press. At least two unnamed Republican lawmakers…
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Opinion In the Rough: How Jewish Country Club Can Honor Barack Obama
In 1924, Emory Keene, the proprietor of White Roe Farm in the Catskills, sent out a postcard about his lakeside resort, where the air was “pure and invigorating.” He pledged to meet trains if “notified in time.” Keene added a last line, though: “Hebrews and consumptives not accommodated.” I’ll tell you later how I know…
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Fast Forward Trump Asks Top Obama Treasury Appointee Adam Szubin To Stay
(JTA) — President-elect Donald Trump asked approximately 50 senior administration officials to stay in their roles, including a Treasury Department official who helped craft the Iran nuclear agreement. Trump asked Adam Szubin, acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury Department, and the other officials to continue in their roles to “ensure the continuity of…
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Fast Forward Studio 54 Founder Ian Schrager Gets Pardon From Obama on Tax Charge
More than three decades after he ran afoul of his federal taxes, New York City real estate developer Ian Schrager is receiving a pardon from outgoing President Barack Obama. Schrager, the founder of Manhattan’s famous Studio 54 nightclub, served almost two years in federal prison after being judged guilty on charges of tax evasion back…
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Fast Forward Obama Warns Trump About ‘Explosive’ Jerusalem Embassy Move
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Barack Obama said he conveyed to his successor Donald Trump that moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem could be “explosive.” “Obviously it’s a volatile environment when sudden unilateral moves are made that speak to the core issues or sensitivities of either side. That can be explosive,” Obama said Wednesday at his…
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Fast Forward WATCH: Did Obama Just Sound Final Death Knell for Mideast Peace?
In his final White House press conference on Wednesday, outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama seemed ready to close the book on peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “I don’t see how this issue gets resolved in a way that maintains Israel as both Jewish and a democracy because if you do not have two states,…
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Opinion Barack Obama Became the Face of Liberal Zionism — for Better or Worse
(JTA) — During his campaign for president in 2008, I wrote a column suggesting that Barack Obama was struggling to connect with Jews because they weren’t sure that he supported Israel’s cause in his gut — that is, in his kishkes. I may have been the first to apply the term “Kishkes Factor” in relation…
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Fast Forward Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla could reach Israeli waters over the weekend: What you need to know
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