This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
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The Latest
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Israel News Jim Calhoun Talks March Madness Basketball in the Holy Land
After struggling for many years to build a successful basketball program, The University of Connecticut basketball program decided to hire Jim Calhoun as its new coach on May 14, 1986. At the time, the university was hoping they made the right choice but little did they know that two and half decades later, Calhoun would…
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Life Women Read the Megillah
A staging of King Ahasuerus and Queen Esther in an 1865 photo by Julia Margaret Cameron // Wikimedia Commons From Haifa to Dimona, women are gathering to unfurl the Megillah and let Queen Esther’s voice come through. The feeling, for me and every woman who participates, is that a woman’s reading brings the Megillah alive…
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Opinion If a Palestinian Did This, He’d Be Dead
In an imagined juxtaposition, the Hebron settler meets Fiddler on the Roof. / Richard Goldwasser If you’re online and follow news out of Israel, you’ve probably already seen or at least heard of that wild-and-crazy video of a Hebron settler try to steal a Palestinian flag off a Palestinian roof. The guy gets caught on…
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Fast Forward John Kerry Frustrated by ‘Jewish State’ Recognition Impasse
John Kerry said Israelis and Palestinian mistrust remained high and expressed frustration with the issue of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. The U.S. secretary of state fielded questions Wednesday and Thursday from congressional committees probing his department’s budget requests. “I do believe both parties are serious,” Kerry told the foreign operations subcommittee of the…
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Fast Forward Tunisia Insists It’s Open to Israeli Tourists
Israeli tourists may enter Tunisia with pre-arranged papers and Jews especially should feel comfortable attending a major Jewish festival in May, the Tunisian tourism minister said. Amel Karboul contacted JTA in the wake of the denial of entry earlier this week to Israeli tourists aboard a Norwegian cruise liner. “We are open to all visitors,”…
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Opinion Enough Room for Two Peoples in Holy Land
In his much celebrated new book “My Promised Land,” Ari Shavit reminds readers that the narrative people most often turn to to explain the trouble between Israelis and Palestinians is a grand illusion — though one that was and, for many, still is at the core of Zionism. It’s the belief that Jews were a…
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Life Israeli Beauty Queen Fights for Women
Israeli beauty queen Doron Matalon is a firm believer that good things can come from bad experiences. As a soldier in December 2011, she was sexually harassed by an ultra-Orthodox man on a Jerusalem bus. Now, as the first runner-up in the recent 64th Miss Israel pageant, she plans to use her newfound fame to…
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Opinion Game Over for Religious Balance in Beit Shemesh?
Getty Images In a rerun of a scandal-ridden poll in the fall, Beit Shemesh has reelected its ultra-Orthodox mayor. Rarely has a political campaign pitted Haredim and others against each other to the extent seen in this Israeli city. The original election in October was fought as a battle between two rival visions for the…
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News That whites-only, no Jews allowed Arkansas community is legal, says state’s attorney general. How?
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Opinion As an Israeli political scientist, I resisted thinking this war was a genocide. Here’s what changed my mind
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News In a first, Orthodox rabbinical school ordains an out gay rabbi
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Fast Forward From Shabbat dinners to ‘Talmudic discourse’: Jewish women killed in NYC shooting leave legacies of faith and family
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion In that horrific video of a man digging his own grave, Israelis are seeing something that Americans aren’t
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Opinion Netanyahu’s new Gaza plan is a disaster. But it contains a tiny kernel of wisdom
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Culture In a first-of-its-kind museum, mezuzahs keep memories of pre-war Poland alive
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Fast Forward Netanyahu confirms intent to occupy all of Gaza, against advice of his military
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