Democrat Cory Booker, the charismatic mayor of Newark, was the unofficial winner of a New Jersey special election on Wednesday, handily defeating a conservative Republican to fill the state’s vacant U.S. Senate seat. Booker, who had been heavily favored in polls, defeated conservative Republican Steve Lonegan, a former small-town mayor, according to tallies published online…
There is no such thing as an easy vote in the current U.S. Senate, but Janet Yellen should have a relatively smooth path to confirmation if she is nominated by President Barack Obama to head the Federal Reserve. Obama is expected to announce his decision in coming weeks and a White House official has said…
It’s hard to know exactly how to respond to Vladimir Putin’s op-ed essay in Thursday’s New York Times. On the one hand, polls show that most Americans agree with his call to avoid American military engagement in Syria. On the other hand, very few of us want to come out and agree with Putin. Apparently…
Harry Reid, the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, compared Syrian President Bashar Assad’s alleged chemical weapons attacks against his citizens to the Nazi gas chambers. “Millions and millions of civilians and prisoners of war were murdered by gas in Nazi death camps, Treblinka, Auschwitz. ‘Never again,’ swore the world. Never again would we permit…
The Daily Beast just posted a magazine-length article by yours truly looking back at the Chuck Hagel confirmation battle and the role (or lack thereof) of the Jewish community and the notorious “Israel lobby” in the affair. What’s surprising about the whole affair, on close reexamination, is how absent the Jewish advocacy community was from…
Marine Corps General James Mattis, who retired May 22 as chief of the U.S. Central Command, in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East, said in a speech at the prestigious Aspen Security Forum in Colorado last Saturday (July 20) that America needs to work “with a sense of urgency” to achieve a two-state…
New Jersey’s special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Frank Lautenberg will go ahead this year as scheduled, after the state Supreme Court declined on Thursday to hear a legal challenge. Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, ordered a special primary election on Aug. 13 and a special general…
While some Jews struggle to make it through one Passover Seder each year, Cory Booker, Newark, N.J.’s African-American mayor, traditionally attends at least two. It’s a holiday he equates with Thanksgiving, cherishing the time spent telling stories and teaching lessons. The only tradition he doesn’t approve of is the cuisine. “The bread of affliction is…
אַ טייל פֿון די כינעזישע ליבהאָבער פֿון ייִדיש זאָגן, אַז מאַאָ צע טונג האָט ליב געהאַט שלום־עליכמען.
