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.
More than 300 men and women who identify as descendants of Jews whose families were forced during the Spanish Inquisition gathered in the Sicilian capital of Palermno on Sunday to celebrate their shared bond of Jewish history. “This celebration of Jewish culture in the heart of Palermo underlines the resilience of the Jewish spirit,” said…
Donald Trump has seemingly tried to tone down his more outrageous comments — the kind that have made him a darling of the neo-white supremacists who call themselves the “alt-right” But at the same time, Donald Trump Jr. has stepped up to the plate, directly appealing to the fringe right online and in interviews. One…
The University of California Berkeley has reinstated a student-led course called “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis,” after public outcry over its suspension last week. The syllabus said it would “explore the connection between Zionism and settler colonialism” — settler colonialism being when a foreign people, with imperial backing, take control of a region by moving…
State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is bering trolled by anti-Semitic Donald Trump supporters — again. Schneiderman, a Democrat, has found himself on the receiving end of anti-Semitic social media attacks following the announcement that his office is now investigating the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the New York Daily News reported. Eric Schneiderman is just another…
Recent months have brought reports that descendants of Jews in Kaifeng, China are under threat. Activists call it a government “crackdown.” Police have shut down the only Jewish learning center in Kaifeng, helmed by the Israeli activist group Shavei Israel, say activists. A well that community members identify as their historic mikveh, for ritual Jewish…
A BBC weather forecast in Wales recently told viewers that they could expect to encounter some “Nazi ghosts” along with a cold front in the days ahead. The subtitling of the forecast delivered by the BBC Wales presenter Sue Charles was supposed to read the “North Sea coast.” But a glitch in the automatic subtitling…
A high-level editor of Newsweek Middle East evoked what some called anti-Semitic tropes in a lengthy Twitter exchange on September 6. In responding to a flurry of online criticism of a piece published by Newsweek Middle East titled “Where is Palestine?” Leila Hatoum alluded to the notion that Eastern-European Jews have no ancestral or historic…
The new National Museum of African American History and Culture, years in the making, will open to the public on September 24. Featured in the collection will be a section of African American Judaica — including a shofar, Torah and prayer shawl. “Many people understand that the African America church has been the bedrock of…
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