For 30 years, the services at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, a Conservative synagogue in New Jersey, have suited PJ Smith just fine. They were strictly traditional: Only men counted toward the quorum of ten required to say the most important prayers, and only men could lead services or read from the Torah. But for…
The faces on the walls of the second floor of the gracious municipal building in Haifa tell a story of male authority. Lining the corridor are portraits of the mayors of modern Haifa, beginning with Hassan Bey Shukri, a Muslim appointed by the Turks in 1914, and continuing with his eight successors right up to…
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin wants you to know that he is deeply concerned about the deteriorating relations between his country and Jews around the world, and he plans to do something about it. Which, in a surprising way, sets him apart from the rest of Israel’s political leadership. More surprising still, Rivlin seems to understand…
The Jewish National Fund has removed the name of a disbarred lawyer from its website, hours after the Forward revealed that the JNF had continued to list him as a member of its national board despite long-running legal scandal. Stanley Chesley, a former president of the JNF, has been ordered to pay $42 million to…
Women — fun to hang out with, interesting, beautiful, rarely murder anyone, gestate life, socialized to be empathetic and good at communication. What’s to mock? Not to mention that the roots of negative female archetypes can usually be traced to the dang patriarchy! But if we don’t make fun of women, we exclude them from…
In 2013, the highest court in the state of Kentucky disbarred Stanley Chesley, the fabulously wealthy trial lawyer once known as the “master of disaster” for his representation of victims of horrific catastrophes. The creator of the modern class action lawsuit, Chesley is now enmeshed in one of the worst U.S. legal scandals in recent…
“My father had died in Auschwitz and I had behind me the suffering of French Jews. Beate carried with her the knowledge of Germany’s role in this suffering. Besides, we were naive and full of energy, so we did things we might not do when older and wiser.” Serge Klarsfeld paused and smiled at me….
The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World By Robert H. Mnookin PublicAffairs, 308 pages, $28 Robert H. Mnookin, who is a professor at Harvard Law School and chairs its Program on Negotiation, has gotten the “changing world” part of his subtitle right. Writing before last October’s deadly anti-Semitism-inspired attack on congregants at…
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