Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of former U.S. president Barack Obama and his relationship to the Jewish community.
Barack Obama
The Latest
-
Opinion Chemical Weapons Are Different. Here’s Why.
One of the strangest aspects of the Syria debate is how much energy and passion is going into it, on both sides — for and against American air strikes — and how little light is being shed on the central issue, namely chemical weapons. Secretary of State John Kerry, in his supposedly game-changing speech August…
-
Breaking News AIPAC Details ‘Major’ Lobbying Push on Syria
The influential pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee will deploy hundreds of activists next week to win support in Congress for military action in Syria, amid an intense White House effort to convince wavering U.S. lawmakers to vote for limited strikes. “We plan a major lobbying effort with about 250 activists in Washington to meet…
-
Breaking News AIPAC Plans ‘All-Out’ Push for Syria Vote
AIPAC is putting its bodies where its mouth is on Syria. The pro-Israel group, having backed President Obama’s push to authorize military strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, plans to dispatch more than 250 leaders and activists to lobby Congress starting early next week. The hawkish group decided to double down on its support…
-
News Undecided Lawmakers Key to Fate of Syria Vote
The fate of a congressional resolution to authorize President Barack Obama’s planned military strikes on Syria hinges on scores of undecided U.S. lawmakers, with party loyalty appearing increasingly irrelevant. Even after congressional hearings featuring Obama’s secretaries of state and defense, a half dozen closed-door briefings and phone calls from Obama himself, it was too close…
-
Breaking News Jewish Democrat Alan Grayson Says Syria Measure Doomed in House of Representative
Rep. Alan Grayson, a liberal Jewish Democrat, is planning to vote against President Obama’s proposal to authorize intervention in Syria — and predicts the measure will fail by a wide margin in the House of Representatives. The Florida congressman told Politico that constituents in his Orlando-area district are dead set against getting involved in Syria’s…
-
Opinion The Presidential Blessing
Taking a moment off from the intense debate over Syria, President Barack Obama published a blessing for the High Holidays. Obama noted that 50 years ago, Rabbi Joachim Prinz stood with Dr. King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and told the marchers the when god created man, he created him as everybody’s neighbor….
-
Breaking News President Barack Obama Visits Raoul Wallenberg Memorial in Sweden
President Obama examined artifacts from the life of Raoul Wallenberg and wished Jews worldwide a “shanah tovah” during a tour of Stockholm’s Great Synagogue. Wallenberg’s half sister, Nina Lagergren, 92, escorted Obama on Wednesday as he examined the belongings of the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust and later disappeared…
-
Israel News How White House Push to Jews Spurred Shift on Syria
The message from the two senior administration officials to Jewish leaders during a large conference call September 3 was clear: The Obama administration, said deputy national security advisors Ben Rhodes and Tony Blinken, believed that congressional approval of military action would send an important message to Iran, Israel’s most feared rival in the region. “It…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Your complete guide to Trump’s Jewish advisers and pro-Israel cabinet
- 2
Fast Forward Trump AG nominee Matt Gaetz has left a trail of antisemitic comments
- 3
Opinion Trump’s first picks are die-hard Israel supporters, mocking the pro-Palestinian protest vote
- 4
News What a Secretary of State Marco Rubio would mean for American Jews and Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite
-
News Howard Lutnick, Trump Commerce Secretary pick, is Jewish billionaire, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald
-
Culture Was a ravishing, fictional heroine inspired by a real-life Jewish philanthropist?
-
Fast Forward Sam Salz is likely the first Orthodox Jew to appear in a Division I college football game
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
