Mountain View
The Forward
Jewish Emmy nominees include Larry David and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ in a last hurrah
(JTA) — TV’s most Jewish comedy has one more chance to grab some statues on its way out the door. The 12th and final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David’s long-running HBO sitcom, was nominated for four Emmy awards Wednesday, including best comedy and best actor for David. Since premiering in 2000 the show...
Kobe Bryant’s late father Joe once coached a Jewish day school’s girls basketball team
(JTA) — Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, a Philadelphia basketball hero who died Monday at the age of 69, played eight seasons in the NBA and is best known as the father of the late basketball great Kobe Bryant. But for Philadelphia’s Jewish community, he is also being remembered for his first coaching gig: In 1992-1993, he...
Jerusalem Youth Chorus advances on ‘America’s Got Talent’ with performance of ‘Home’
(JTA) — A chorus of Israeli and Palestinian teens won hearts, applause and a chance at $1 million with a successful “America’s Got Talent” audition that aired on Tuesday night. The Jerusalem Youth Chorus performed Phillip Phillips’ “Home,” an anthem that envisions a safe and comfortable future after difficult times — with lyrics whose resonance...
In a first, Republican Jewish Coalition CEO addresses RNC as Republicans vow to make American Jews safe again
(JTA) — MILWAUKEE — At an unprecedented time for American Jews, Republican Jewish Committee CEO Matt Brooks did something Tuesday night that was unprecedented for him: He spoke at the Republican National Convention. “President Trump will bring back law and order so that American Jews can once again wear a kippah and walk the streets...
Human Rights Watch, harsh critic of Israel, details Oct. 7 atrocities
Human Rights Watch issued a report Wednesday detailing war crimes and other violence committed by Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians during the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel. The 252-page document, titled “I Can’t Erase All the Blood from My Mind,” reached several notable conclusions, including that Palestinian civilians were not responsible...
A Jewish day school hired a former ceasefire activist. Then came the backlash.
Tasha Kaminsky figured her politics might be a concern for the Jewish day school she was applying to work for. So on her first call with a recruiter, she brought it up. “I was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, I’ve been very vocal about wanting a ceasefire,’” Kaminsky said in an interview with the...
What Stephen Sondheim knew about Donald Trump’s would-be assassin — and the American culture that produced him
What drives someone to try to kill a president? That’s the question of the moment, as authorities seek to understand what motivated a 20-year-old man’s Saturday assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. It’s also the question behind one of the stranger installments in the American musical theater canon: Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, in which a...
Hostage families to Netanyahu: Don’t come to Washington without a hostage deal
Many hostage families say Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s July 24 speech to a joint session of Congress in Washington is pointless as long as Hamas is still holding their loved ones captive. “I would have preferred that he only be invited to Congress after the deal was done,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen said in a phone...
JD Vance is a huge fan of Israel’s Yoram Hazony. What might that mean for America?
J.D. Vance’s favorite political theorist is an Israeli Jew. In an interview with Jewish Insider in 2021, the newly anointed vice-presidential pick of former President Donald Trump enthusiastically cited his admiration for Yoram Hazony, who has been instrumental in nudging the Jewish state toward illiberalism and is busily resurrecting a movement called “national conservatism.” “He’s...
Neo-Nazi known as ‘Commander Butcher’ charged for attempting to poison Jewish children in New York City
(New York Jewish Week) — A neo-Nazi from the country of Georgia was indicted on Monday for planning mass casualty attacks against Jews in New York City. Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as “Commander Butcher,” planned to distribute poisoned candy to children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn and other attacks against minorities, prosecutors said Chkhikvishvili, 20,...
Russia sentences Jewish writer Masha Gessen to prison in absentia for comments on Ukraine war
(JTA) — A Russian court has sentenced the decorated Russian-Jewish writer Masha Gessen to eight years in prison in absentia over comments they made about the country’s conduct in the Ukraine war in 2022. The sentence makes Gessen, who uses they/them pronouns, at least the fifth prominent Jewish writer to be targeted by Russia for...
It’s time for liberal Jews to shake off the dust, arise, and save democracy
As a journalist, I don’t turn away from the news often. But I have this week. For liberals – and, in this column, I’m mostly going to be speaking to those left of center – it’s been a really difficult month. Just a selection (and I’m leaving a lot out), we’ve witnessed Joe Biden’s disastrous...
Why are Yiddish speakers talking about JD Vance and bedbugs?
If J.D. Vance, the Republican party’s freshly nominated vice-presidential candidate, had been chosen for the position in Yiddish, a lot of people would be shaking (and scratching) their heads, given that his last name in Yiddish — vants — means “bedbug.” Though the phrase “does anyone know the Yiddish for bedbug” is trending online now,...
Will the Senate quietly approve a controversial antisemitism definition?
Earlier this year, there was a flurry of action around a piece of federal legislation that proponents say would help address campus antisemitism. The Antisemitism Awareness Act sailed through the House in May with bipartisan support, despite concerns from some top Democratic lawmakers, among others, that it could stifle free speech. The bill would codify...
Did Marvel’s ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ really make an Israeli superhero Russian?
These days everyone’s boycotting Sabra, and I don’t just mean the hummus. Well before the current war in Israel, Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World came under fire for including the little-known Israeli superhero Sabra. Born Ruth Bat-Seraph, Sabra was raised in a state-run kibbutz, had bulletproof skin, an anti-gravity cape and worked for...
Short on students, Reform Judaism’s seminary introduces remote ordination program
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the flagship rabbinical school of Reform Judaism, will allow students to pursue ordination remotely, the school announced Tuesday, part of a program overhaul that aims to reverse plummeting enrollment. Beginning in 2025, HUC will offer two ordination tracks — one based at its New York and Los Angeles campuses,...
How a legendary Jewish sociologist’s faith in reason is what we need in this dangerous, fist-pumping time
150 years ago, a French-Jewish teenager told his father, a rabbi in the town of Épinal, that he had decided against entering rabbinical school, thus breaking with a family tradition that stretched back several generations. Yet this teen would never escape another family tradition where, he recalled, “the observance of the law was precept and...
Jewish politician leads prayer for Israeli hostages to end Republican convention’s first day
(JTA) — MILWAUKEE — “Beautiful prayer!” the woman shouted out from the floor of the massive Fiserv Forum. The delegate to Donald Trump’s coronation was responding to a benediction led by Leora Levy, a Jewish Republican from Connecticut, to close out the first day of this year’s Republican Party convention. Levy’s comments included one of...
1932 was a pivotal year in the Nazis’ ascent. It’s a terrifying parallel for today
To many, it now seems inevitable that former President Donald Trump will win this November’s election — a sense that offers a huge boost to Trump’s campaign, and makes alarmingly clear how closely the United States in 2024 resembles Germany in 1932. Then, a Nazi victory began to seem increasingly inescapable, as election followed election...
In a young boy’s diary, a record of how Jews lived to the fullest, even in the face of death
Like many teenagers, Yitshkok Rudashevski had a lot on his plate. “It is so hard to make time for school and the club and then to get entangled in cooking and cleaning,” Rudashevski wrote in his diary, which chronicled the class assignments, lectures and exhibitions that filled his days. “I often think: this is supposed...
The Forward
1K+
Posts
13M+
Views
The Forward is the nation’s most widely read Jewish news outlet, a fiercely independent and non-ideological source for news, culture and opinion across the political spectrum.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.