Gal Beckerman was a staff writer and then the Forward’s opinion editor until 2014. He was previously an assistant editor at the Columbia Journalism Review where he wrote essays and media criticism. His book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review and Bookforum. His first book, “When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry,” won the 2010 National Jewish Book Award and the 2012 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, as well as being named a best book of the year by The New Yorker and The Washington Post. Follow Gal on Twitter at @galbeckerman
Gal Beckerman
By Gal Beckerman
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Opinion Who the !?@# Is Saul Alinsky?!
“Republicans have created this completely fictional president. His name is Barack X. And he is an Islamo-Socialist-Revolutionary who is coming for your guns, raising your taxes, slashing the military, apologizing to other countries, and taking his cues from Europe, or worse yet…Saul Alinsky!” — Bill Maher (note: contains explicit language; in other words, this is…
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Opinion The Times Enters the Shtetlsphere
It is not uncommon for us here in the small world of Jewish journalism (or, as Marc Tracy over at Tablet so aptly dubbed it, the “shtetlsphere”) to marvel when The New York Times runs a story that would seem even too narrowly Jewish (or Israeli) for us. It happens, strangely, all the time. We…
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Opinion What Sheldon’s Money Buys
It is safe to say that without multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s help the chances of Newt Gingrich becoming the Republican nominee for president would be zero — and consequently the race itself, going into Florida at the moment, would not be the competitive, drag-out fight it has become. Adelson, the hotel and casino magnate, has kept…
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Opinion Gingrich’s Anti-Semitic Dog Whistle: Saul Alinsky
When Newt Gingrich is called out for using the phrase “food stamp president,” he fiercely defends the idea that he is simply pointing out the obvious: that under Obama more people signed up for food stamps. Simple as that. He is not gently plucking racist tropes for the benefit of his base, but just telling…
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Opinion Now We’ve Got a Contest
So tonight I stand corrected. After New Hampshire I was sure that Mitt had this all wrapped up and that’s what I wrote here. But tonight I know I was wrong. I didn’t take into account the Sheldon Adelson factor. Five million dollars from Newt Gingrich’s buddy has given the former speaker yet another life…
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Opinion Human Rights Watch Calls Out the Palestinians
In certain circles, the very name, Human Rights Watch, has become a profanity. There are those convinced that this is an organization set on attacking Israel unmercifully and disproportionately. Among these people is even Bob Bernstein who founded the group in the 1970s and recently left in protest to start Advancing Human Rights, which he…
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Opinion Looks Like It’s Mitt
So if there was one overwhelming message out of New Hampshire tonight — after watching the 2nd and 3rd and 4th and 5th runners up pathetically grasping to put a positive spin on their losses (Huntsman: “Third place is a ticket to ride!”) — it was that Mitt Romney is looking pretty inevitable. You’ll hear…
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Opinion The GOP’s Albatross
The first votes in the 2012 elections have now been cast by the good people of Iowa, the beneficiaries of this quadrennial honor. And though the caucuses are often not the best indicator of what will happen as the primary contest proceeds — let’s not forget the triumphs there of Mike Huckabee and Pat Robertson…
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News Dutch Jews grapple with ‘weaponization’ of their fear following attack on Israelis
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News What a Secretary of State Marco Rubio would mean for American Jews and Israel
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Opinion Almost all voting groups shifted toward Trump, except American Jews. Why?
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Fast Forward ‘Antisemitic hit-and-run squads’: Amsterdam temporarily bans demonstrations after Israeli soccer fans attacked by street mobs
In Case You Missed It
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News What a Trump second presidency will mean for school prayer, campus antisemitism and other education issues Jews care — and worry — about
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Music Has Mark Zuckerberg become the anti-Musk?
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Yiddish באַקענט זיך מיטן אוקראַיִנישן איבערזעצער פֿונעם ליד „אויפֿן וועג שטייט אַ בוים“Meet the Ukrainian translator of the song ‘Afn veg shteyt a boym’
דער ייִדישער מוזיקער אָלעס וואַלינטשיק וויל ווײַזן דער וועלט די טיפֿע צונויפֿפֿלעכטונג פֿון דער ייִדישער און אוקראַיִישער קולטור.
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Culture Why is the latest Jesus movie about, uh, mixed martial arts?
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