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.
When it comes to moves against BDS and the Anti-Defamation League, it’s complicated. Like most of the mainstream Jewish community, the ADL views the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel as deplorable. In fact, said the group’s national director, Jonathan Greenblatt in May, “At its core BDS is an anti-Semitic movement. It is…
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey is standing by his friend Marc Gafni, a controversial New Age guru and former rabbi accused of abuses of power through his career, including molestation of a teenage girl. Mackey until recently sat on the board of Gafni’s think-tank, Center for Integral Wisdom. Activists have been pushing Mackey to publicly…
As many Jewish groups jump on board a push for laws to penalize businesses and groups boycotting Israel, the Anti-Defamation League, long considered a pillar of the Jewish establishment, is not just standing back — it has been opposing the tide. And now, it’s taking flack for this. In a press release calling ADL’s opposition…
Brooklyn College has largely exonerated two students who spent the last four months ensnared in a drawn-out disciplinary process and publicly accused of anti-Semitism by their college president. The college could find no witnesses to tie the students to one of the most egregious allegations leveled against them: that while protesting a meeting one of…
A City University of New York disciplinary committee handed down the minimum punishment to two Brooklyn College students involved in an “anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish” February protest, where a faculty member said he heard someone called a “Zionist pig.” Sarah Aly and Thomas DeAngelis, seniors who both belong to the activist group Students for Justice in…
Israel will spend 8.1 million shekels, or about $2 million, to bring more than 712 members of India’s Bnei Menashe community to Israel this year, the Israeli news site Walla reported May 22. In the past, the Ministry of Absorption and the Jewish Agency have handled group immigration to Israel. But in the case of…
In March, the United Nations compiled a “black list” of Israeli companies doing business in the West Bank. In some pro-Israel circles, it appeared part of a larger trend: the UN singling out Israel for condemnation. But on May 31, Israel’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations and the World Jewish Congress hosted what they…
The clock is ticking toward midnight, and dimming hopes now seem to rest with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for a bill that would enable thousands of child sex abuse victims to seek justice from their abusers. Victim advocates had considered twin bills introduced this year to be their best chance yet to extend the…
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