Jewish News

Obama nominates Lew to run OMB

President Obama nominated Jacob Lew, an Orthodox Jew, as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Lew, who held the top OMB post under President Clinton, is a deputy secretary of state for management and resources. He would succeed Peter Orszag, who also is Jewish. His current position parallels within the State Department the OMB mission of prioritizing government ...

Obama Names New Chief of Staff with Strong Ties to Jewish Community

U.S. President Barack Obama named as his new chief of staff a security official, Denis McDonough, who has strong ties to the Jewish organizational community.McDonough, until now the deputy to National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, handled much of the National Security Council’s Israel-related traffic and has strong ties with Jewish groups. He addressed the Washington Institute for Near East Policy ...

Obama: My family would be fine with just 1 term

Though the president himself, his staff, and his supporters around the country are busy devoting everything they’ve got to his 2012 re-election campaign, Obama revealed Monday that his family isn’t necessarily as “invested.”“Michelle and the kids are wonderful in that if I said, ‘You know, guys, I want to do something different, they’d be fine. They’re not invested in daddy ...

Obama Meets With The Conference Of Presidents Of Major American Jewish Organizations

Leaders of the Conference of Presidents and its member organizations met today with President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss U.S.-Israel relations, ongoing changes in the Middle East and other issues.The 50-person delegation, led by Conference of Presidents Chairman Alan Solow and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, also met with David S. Cohen, the Department of Treasury’s Acting ...

Obama Is An Anti-Israel President Who Has Mastered “Chutzpah”

Say what you will about President Obama’s approach to Israel – or of his relationship with American Jews – he sure has mastered the concept of chutzpah.On Thursday at the State Department, the president gave his big speech on the Middle East, in which he invoked the claims of friendship to tell Israelis “the truth,” which to his mind was that ...

Obama is a Shabbat-Friendly Boss, Chief of Staff Says

When Jack Lew was appointed chief of staff to President Obama in January, many in the Jewish community wondered how he could observe Shabbat in such a demanding position.Luckily, Lew has the most powerful man in the world to keep track of time as the sun starts to dip low in the sky on Friday afternoons.“I saw the president on ...

Obama hosts Passover seder at the White House

U.S. President Barack Obama hosted a Passover seder at the White House Monday night together with his wife Michelle and a small group of Jewish and non-Jewish staff and family. This is the third year in a row in which Obama has hosted a seder.The tradition started in 2008 when, after a long day on the campaign trail, then-Senator Obama ...

Obama Envoy Meets with Shliach in Anti-Semitic City

Hannah Rosenthal, Barack Obama’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, has travelled to Malmö, Sweden, for a closed-doors meeting with the city’s mayor who has been accused of fomenting hatred of Jews.Ilmar Reepalu recently told Swedish magazine Neo that the far-right Sweden Democrat party has “infiltrated the Jewish community in order to push its hatred of Muslims”.In February, the ...

Obama Corrects Controversial Jewish Heritage Month Proclamation

On May 1, a day marked worldwide by the protests and parades of the labor movement, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the start of a different event – the seventh annual Jewish American Heritage Month. Obama implored all Americans to visit a website dedicated to the history of the Jewish American community (www.JewishHeritageMonth.gov ), “to learn more about the heritage ...

Obama celebrates Jewish contributions to U.S.

U.S. President Barack Obama has honored the contributions of Jews to America during a hectic week of Mideast policymaking.Obama spoke at a White House reception Tuesday recognizing Jewish Americans in the arts, science, the military, business and industry, and in public and community service. He says they persevered despite unspeakable discrimination and adversity at times.Earlier in the day, Obama and ...

Obama calls east Jerusalem construction plans ‘unhelpful’

US President Barack Obama criticized Israel on Tuesday at a news conference in Indonesia, following Monday’s announcement that Israel has advanced plans to build 1,345 homes in east Jerusalem.“This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations,” Obama said during a visit to Jakarta.Also on Tuesday, senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat called on the international community ...

Obama breaks silence, condemns Libya crackdown

President Barack Obama condemned the “outrageous” crackdown by Libyan security forces on protesters and said Washington would work with international partners to hold Muammar Gaddafi’s government accountable.“The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous and it is unacceptable. So are threats and orders to shoot peaceful protesters,” Obama said in his first public comments on the violence in Libya.He did not directly ...