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.
The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement claimed a landslide victory in Canada on the weekend of July 9 as the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly overwhelmingly supported a resolution backing the boycott of Israel. All but one of the 350 delegates of the Canadian assembly supported the resolution, the website Mondoweiss reported. The Mennonite Church of…
Critics of Israel have claimed credit for the cancellation of a planned Tel Aviv concert by ‘Happy’ singer Pharrell Williams — but others blamed anemic ticket sales. The left-leaning Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel applauded the Grammy-winner’s decision to cancel the gig set for next week….
A prominent African-American Zionist used social media to blast a campus group for drawing parallels between racial violence in this country and the occupation of Palestinian lands by the Israeli military. “I’m just like, wait a minute SJP. Let’s be real,” Chloé Simone Valdary said in the brief video, posted on both her Facebook and…
Consider the key card: a piece of plastic no bigger than a business card, flimsy and seemingly innocent. And yet it’s also possibly the trigger to a cascade of changes that could transform the experience of the Sabbath by making a bevy of other devices, from iPads to stoves to cars, permissible on the traditionally…
A controversial new eruv designed to serve Modern Orthodox Jews in the traditionally Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights was allegedly vandalized — days after rabbis from the Chabad-Lubavitcher group said the ritual barrier was not approved by rabbinic authorities. The wire that is erected around Orthodox areas allowing for otherwise-prohibited activities on the Sabbath…
Nathan and Joshua Katz, two brothers from Australia now headed to the Olympics, are Jews with judo in their blood. Nathan, who is 21, and Joshua, age 18, inherited their love for the Japanese martial art from their parents, both of whom were judo fighters, too. Now they’ve made it to the Olympics. The two…
You might think Donald Trump would want to put his controversial Tweet using a Star of David in the rear view mirror as fast as possible. Instead, he is keeping the story alive by pointing to a Disney sticker book with a similar six-sided star as evidence that his Tweeet of an anti-Hillary Clinton meme…
Max Blumenthal, the journalist and harsh critic of Israel, harshly condemned Elie Wiesel after his death last weeekend, Tweeting that the iconic Holocaust survivor did “more harm than good” with his unswerving support of the Jewish state. “Elie Wiesel went from a victim of war crimes to a supporter of those who commit them,” said…
100% of profits support our journalism
