Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.
President Donald Trump took a poll at a recent meeting before commuting the prison sentence of kosher meat executive Sholom Rubashkin, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. In a recent meeting, Trump polled attendees about whether he should make this move https://t.co/piaKdmuWL6 — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 21, 2017 Rubashkin went free last…
Last year, as neo-Nazis threatened to descend on Whitefish, Montana, with an armed march, the town’s police force nailed a mezuzah on a doorframe at their station — a gesture of solidarity with the town’s small Jewish population who had been on the receiving end of online harassment for weeks. Months later, it’s still up…
Twitter accounts associated with the far-right Jewish Defense League were swept up in a larger purging of white nationalists accounts as the social media site implemented new rules targeted “violent extremist” groups. The Twitter accounts @JDLCanada, @jdldotorg, @JewishDefenceNY were all booted offline sometime on Monday, December 19. Twitter announced in mid-November that beginning Dec. 18,…
Paul Nehlen, who is aiming to unseat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in a Republican primary, is capitalizing on the online culture wars — drawing from “alt-right” imagery and ideas, even flirting with more hardcore white nationalists. While the Huffington Post wrote that Nehlen has “white nationalist street cred,” his flirtation with the white…
At the largest gathering of Reform Jews in the country earlier this month, Joe Buchanan stuck out in the crowd. Thousands of Jews had gathered in Boston for four days of worship and learning. But Buchanan was the only Jewish cowboy. In a black felted hat and a patterned handkerchief tied around his wrist, Buchanan,…
Standing beneath the charred remains of their synagogue, members of Brooklyn’s Hebrew Israelite community mourned the destruction of their historic house of worship. B’nai Adah Kol Beth Israel was gutted by an accidental fire last month and the building now stands vacant and boarded up. There are gaping holes in the roof, with beams poking…
Chris Smith, a former New York Knicks point guard, recently signed with the Israeli team Ironi Nahariya. But the deal wasn’t just a career move. Smith reportedly converted to Judaism and said he was inspired both by growing up around Jews in New Jersey and by his one-time teammate Amar’e Stoudemire to take this spiritual…
The Los Angeles-based Kabbalah Centre is teaming up with “branding gurus” at the company Base Design to launch a new advertising campaign — rendering Jewish mysticism for mass consumption. Geoff Cook, a partner at Base Design told Quartz that they were looking to “demystify” Kabbalah. To this end, the branding company created a slew of…
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