Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of former U.S. president Barack Obama and his relationship to the Jewish community.
Barack Obama
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Breaking News President Obama Hails Jewish Role in Civil Rights in Rosh Hashanah Call
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama told rabbis in a pre-High Holidays call that Jews should share their story of working to advance civil rights as a means of inspiring change at a time of racial tensions. Obama spoke Monday with over 600 rabbis from the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements. His tone on the…
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Breaking News Mel Brooks Warned by President Obama: Don’t Sell Arts Medal on eBay
President Barack Obama awarded 24 American giants of the arts and humanities with medals on Thursday, lauding their accomplishments – and sharing some laughs. Comedian Mel Brooks, who Obama has said he admires for his over-the-top Western satire “Blazing Saddles,” dropped to one knee as if receiving a knighthood after he was given his official…
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Opinion How Obama’s Aid Package to Netanyahu Functions as a Rorschach Test for Jews
You can consider the unprecedented 10-year, $38 billion military aid package that the United States just signed with Israel by the numbers. It’s $3.8 billion a year. That’s $73,076,924 a week. Roughly $10,410,959 a day. Or you can consider it as a Rorschach test for the waning days of the tempestuous relationship between President Obama…
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Israel News Trump’s Shadow Looms Large Over Meeting Between Obama and Netanyahu
Given their long, tempestuous and mostly acrimonious relationship over the past seven-and-a-half years, Wednesday’s meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama, touted as their last, could have been a grand finale. At one extreme, the two leaders might have expressed their true emotions and undergone catharsis, bro-hugging and making up at the end, while at…
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Breaking News President Obama Urges Israel and Palestinians To End Deadlock in Final United Nations Speech
Both sides would benefit if Israel recognized it cannot permanently occupy Palestinian land and if Palestinians rejected incitement and recognized Israel’s legitimacy, U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations on Tuesday. Obama’s efforts to bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement have failed over the nearly eight years he has been in the White House,…
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Israel News ANALYSIS: $38B Israel Aid Deal Is Political Boon for Benjamin Netanyahu — and Barack Obama
When Yaakov Nagel, Israel’s acting national security adviser, was tasked with heading the team negotiating a new 10-year military aid package with the United States, Prime Minister Netanyahu set forth the guidelines: “If you reach $3.5 billion a year, you’ll get a gold medal,” Nagel recalled Wednesday, hours before signing the agreement in Washington. “If…
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News Sure, Donald Trump’s More Famous Than the Baal Shem Tov. But Bigger Than Jesus?
The semi-serious data-driven magazine Improbable Research has released a study empirically assessing (with tongue firmly in cheek) just how famous Donald Trump is. The verdict? He’s bigger than Jesus. In “Measuring Fame Quantitatively V: Who’s the Most Famous of Them All (Part 2),” Dr. Eric Schulman, an astrophysicist and science humorist, used Google searches and…
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Life Why Glamour Is the Perfect Outlet for Obama’s Feminist Manifesto
Obama’s recent personal essay on his feminism was smart and relatable. But as well-written as it was, I don’t want to talk about it. The piece speaks for itself. I want to talk about the medium. While any publication in the world would’ve been delighted to feature an exclusive piece written by the sitting President…
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