Forward Staff
By Forward Staff
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Mark Hetfield
At the Forefront of Syrian Refugee Relief This year, many Jews spoke out against the growing tide of nativism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. But for Mark Hetfield, the 49-year-old president of HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), stemming that tide was a matter of personal importance and professional pride. HIAS is the oldest international migration…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Masha Gessen
Writing About Jews and Fighting for Gay Rights When Masha Gessen, 49, fled Russia as a teenage refusenik to come to America, she probably never imagined that she would someday become one of the Kremlin’s primary antagonists. But three decades on, she has emerged as one of the loudest and most eloquent critics of autocracy,…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Yehuda Glick
The American Member of the Knesset Who Wants the Temple Mount Back In November 2014, Yehuda Glick was shot at point-blank range by a Palestinian assailant who wanted to kill a prominent proponent of Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount. Glick not only survived the attack, but this year he was voted into the Israeli…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Harry Swimmer
Helping Disabled Children Ride Horses for 20 Years When CNN announced the 10 finalists for its “CNN Heroes” special, 86-year-old Harry Swimmer was eating lox and bagels with family and friends, keeping his best poker face. Swimmer knew he was a finalist, but he’d signed a confidentiality agreement and kept the news from even his…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Jeffrey Goldberg
The Craft of The Atlantic’s New Editor Washington journalist Jeffrey Goldberg had a productive 2016. In March, he published “The Obama Doctrine,” a 20,000-word essay on President Obama’s foreign policy, in The Atlantic. Drawing on hours of conversations with Obama and dozens of aides, critics and foreign leaders, the piece aimed “to see the world…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Daniel Landes
The Rabbi Whose Ordination of Women Is Pushing the Envelope of Orthodoxy In 2016, Rabbi Daniel Landes pushed the envelope of Modern Orthodoxy in Israel by ordaining women rabbis in an Orthodox-style ceremony. The former head of the Pardes Institute — a coeducational beit midrash, or religious institution of Jewish study — Landes has been…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Aly Raisman
Captain of America’s Olympic Gymnasts Aly Raisman tumbled into victory this August after helping Team USA nab an Olympic gold medal in women’s gymnastics. The 22-year-old Massachusetts native also took home two silver medals of her own, pulling in second for her floor routine and all-around floor competition. With six medals to her name, Raisman…
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A Year of Curses and Many Blessings Michael Twitty
The Jewish Afroculinarian A food historian, Michael Twitty, might be an unlikely voice of popular protest, but his blog, Afroculinaria, was one of the sites that people went to for passionate commentary on #BlackLivesMatter and the homophobic Florida nightclub shooting in June. Twitty, 39, is black, Jewish and gay, and has been writing about history,…
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