In The News

President Obama's Historic Interview with The Forward

President Obama talks about his bagel choice, and ways that the Jewish community has shaped him.

At the end of my interview with President Obama the morning of Friday, August 28, after he had defended with lawyerly precision the pending multinational nuclear agreement with Iran and voiced a determined optimism that the toxic relations between his administration and Israel will be repaired, I asked him a more personal question.

American Jews Must Unite Again for Israel

The summer has been an ugly one for the American Jewish community. What should have been a policy debate over the Ian nuclear deal devolved into something much more pernicious and overwhelming. The Iran deal, as important as it is, has become so divisive that the damage it is doing to American Jewry, and even world Jewry, is on the verge of becoming permanent. It has taken on the appearance of the war of the Jews, as if only our community has a stake in the debate’s outcome.

In 2016, Your Vote Counts for the Supreme Court

One of the campaign issues that went underdiscussed during the first prime-time Republican presidential debate should really be at the top of the list: the future of the Supreme Court.

Why? When the next president is inaugurated in January 2017, three of the nine Supreme Court justices will be 80 or older. Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote, and Antonin Scalia, the bombastic conservative, will be almost 81, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal icon, will be 83.

Planned Parenthood Defunding Vote Shows How Much the Right-Wing Fringe Owns Republicans

Hopefully, the fabricated “scandal” over Planned Parenthood will be wrapping up today. For the past few weeks, Republicans have been striking poses of outrage and disgust over a series of misleading videos created by the religious-right propagandists at the Center for Medical Progress. CMP claims the videos show illegal activity at Planned Parenthood, a claim that is, simply put, a lie. But Senate Republicans are performing outrage and pushing for a vote to defund Planned Parenthood.

The Iran Nuclear Deal Explained -- Simply

International negotiators assembled in Austria have announced the final terms of the Iranian nuclear deal. The purpose of the deal is to limit Iran's nuclear program to something that is small, safe, and peaceful — and to impose lots of invasive inspections to make sure Iran is keeping to its end of the deal. In exchange, Iran gets relief from some of the economic sanctions that have crippled its economy. Both sides, the thinking goes, also get to avert a war.

JAC Statement on the Iran Nuclear Deal 7-2015

At JAC, we are united with the Jewish community in our fervent desire to see the threat from a nuclear-Iran eliminated through diplomatic means. The U.S. has always had a strong commitment to Israel's security, a goal that has always united the two countries. As Congress reviews the details of the deal, it is important they remain committed to maintaining a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, free from partisanship and that discussions are "rigorous and fact based."

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