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Sundown: Obama Campaign Gets Outside Help

Plus Casspi plans triumphant return, Peres turns 88, and more

by
Marc Tracy
August 16, 2011
Omri Casspi in Israel last summer.(Yehuda Raizner/AFP/Getty Images)
Omri Casspi in Israel last summer.(Yehuda Raizner/AFP/Getty Images)

• In a sign of how seriously the Obama administration takes (and worries about) its standing with the Jewish community, it hired Ira Forman, former head of the National Jewish Democratic Council, as the re-election campaign’s Jewish outreach director. [Washington Jewish Week]

• An Israeli airstrike in Gaza in response to a rocket killed one. [NYT]

• Omri Casspi will join Jordan Farmar and Jon Scheyer on his old team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, due to the impending NBA lockout. [JTA]

• You want free Jewish books? Of course you do! On September 15, you can get ‘em. [Jewish Book Council]

• Regarding circumcisions: don’t try this at home (someone did). [AP/Boston Globe]

• Happy 88th birthday, President Peres! [JTA/Jewish Journal]

John Lennon sings “Hava Nagila” and more in a 1969 Israeli radio interview. Must-listen.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.