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 [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.
The Zionist Organization of America praised Donald Trump for recent comments he made in support of expanding Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling the presidential candidate’s words “refreshing.” Morton Klein, ZOA’s president said he was pleased to hear a “presidential candidate say that Israeli/Palestinian peace is not dependent upon Israel discriminating against Israeli…
Donald Trump’s impending Republican nomination will spur American Jews to back Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in greater numbers, say several pundits and pols. Trump’s nomination will pull centrist Jews in the Democrats’ direction, said Greg Rosenbaum, chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council, a political lobbying organization. “We think it would be very…
The Jewish community in Kaifeng, China, is facing a government “crackdown,” according to Jewish activists. “It is time to break the silence,” said Anson Laytner, former president of the Sino-Judaic Institute, which has been working in China since the 1980s. “Their very survival as Jews is at stake.” Government police have shut down the only…
For centuries, world travelers dreamed of finding distant Jewish tribes in the faraway corners of their known world — over the mountains, in remote villages, practicing customs preserved in isolation. Today, a quick Google search will do. In Facebook groups and on Skype, on Whatsapp and Instagram, communities from Africa, Asia and the Americas gather…
Police arrested 17 activists denouncing the “Jewish establishment’s support of the occupation of Palestine” on April 20 in the lobby of the Anti-Defamation League during one of a series of Passover protests organized by anti-occupation group If Not Now. Before they were cuffed and shuffled into New York Police Department vans, the young activists had…
The Democratic Republic of Congo is at a crossroads: Its next election, scheduled for the fall, could be the first open presidential race in 50 years. One rising star and potential candidate is a man named Moïse Katumbi, business tycoon and former governor of mineral-rich Katanga, in the south of the country. Katumbi is a…
On a recent afternoon in Queens, Secretary of State John Kerry sat with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, chatting amiably. “It’s great to see you two side by side,” Kerry said to the delegates. “Now, have we agreed about these land swaps?” The Israeli and Palestinian smiled and nodded — a historic agreement had been reached;…
At the corner of East Broadway and Canal, in the heart of Manhattan’s now chic Lower East Side, young men and women lined up on a recent Saturday night, waiting patiently to be seated at Mission Chinese Food, a downtown fixture decorated with a bright red awning and thick curtains. With faces turned to the…
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