A Syrian Message To Rabbi Krinsky: My Heart Goes Out to You

By Abdulsalam Haykal
Dear Rabbi Krinsky:
I changed my plan and stayed in the hotel room in Chicago to watch your press conference on Friday following the horrific tragedy in Mumbai.  Your commitment to adopt the innocent toddler Moshe, Prophet Moses’ namesake, spoke volumes of the solidarity of your community, and the sense of responsibility you have [...]

Profile of a young photographer from Syria: Mais Shourbaji

It doesn’t take one a long time to realize the young woman, holding her camera and getting busy searching for good angles, is a talented one. Born in 1983, Mais Shourbaji is one of Syria’s self-taught photographers; ready to snap a picture with great ingenuity and passion as long as she is in love with [...]

Syrian & international artists, musicians, media gurus, entrepreneurs and politicians meet up here!

A rocker from Aleppo (son of Syria’s top singer, Sabah Fakhri, Anas Abu Qaws) meets up with a second generation Syrian PR managing director, Karim Mardam Bey, whose life’s dream is to come back to motherland Syria. They both peer over a few pages to find two Syrian inventors who most [...]

Syrian media activists make a difference on Obama’s website! – a Forward Magazine scoop..

We are glad to have Camille Alexandre Otrakji, a Syrian residing in Canada and the founder of creativesyria.com, as a guest writer on Forward Magazine’s blog. His post, below, discusses a very interesting story about a recent interaction he had along other Syrian activists with Obama’s transition-into-presidency website & team:

One of my American friends, who [...]

Storming back onto the world stage

By Sami Moubayed
Former British prime minister Tony Blair showed personal interest in the domestic reform program begun by Syria’s new President Bashar al-Assad in 2000. Blair wrote an article at the time, saying that Syria was “a power in the Middle East, a leader of Arab opinion, central to any comprehensive peace deal with Israel, [...]

VOTE NOW: Will Golan Heights return with Obama?

Do you think Barack Obama’s Middle East policies will help restore the occupied Golan Heights to Syria?
To cast your vote, please visit www.fw-magazine.com . Go to the right-side column to visit our online Polling center.
Forward Magazine will be sharing the outcome with readers in our upcoming print edition (as well as on our website and [...]

Breakfast at Mora’s

 

 
Sami Moubayed
 
Around this time of year, expatriate Syrians start planning their Christimas holidays in Damascus. For the past 15-years, I have watched some of Syria’s finest young minds pack up and leave, for careers in the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the US. Some left to pursue their education in the West. Others went for [...]

Voices pealing out in joy, part 1

The singers have all filed into their place. They’ve seen each other a lot over the last three months, if not longer, yet they still find a lot to talk about. They’re happy to see each other and to be there, and the bubbly chatter is resisting being stopped by the conductor waving her hands [...]

around the blogosphere…

It is quite heartening to find the mention of our dear FW: mag in different blogs around the blogosphere. Most recently Sasa posted a new entry titled, Forward Magazine launches blog, on newsfromsyria.com (aka, The Syria News Wire – fresh, independent news from the streets of Damascus and beyond). Sasa’s blog is the “third Syrian [...]

Syrians deserve nice things

Mehdi Rifai
One opinion that honestly astounds me when talking to people over here in Syria is “that will never work here.” Every single concept I mention, such as more web publicity, driving reform, office nap rooms, non-smoking days at restaurants and coffee shops, and decaf coffee is met with both resistance and the need to [...]

Syrian bloggers form book club/blog

Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi – whose personal blog goes with the title “Razanisms” – made it possible for us to learn about a new blog on wordpress, an interesting online book club bringing together bloggers from around the country to discuss impressions about a certain set of books – recommended by the blog’s authors.
The blog [...]

The cassette generation

The cassette generation
Sami Moubayed

I have been writing too much politics in FW: lately; now is the time for some light nostalgia.
I walked into a music store with my good friend Karim Tabba the other day, and asked for a cassette. “We don’t sell them anymore” replied the attendant, with a big smile [...]