Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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Fast Forward After a Tumultuous Year, How do Arab-Israelis Feel About Their Country?
(JTA) — In April 2014, nearly 60 percent of Israel’s 1.7 million Arab citizens said they felt “part of the state and its problems.” The 11 months that followed saw the nationalistically motivated murders of four teenagers — three Jewish and one Arab — a two-month war in the Gaza Strip, a wave of terror in…
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Fast Forward Welcome to the World’s Oldest Chabad House (It’s in Morocco!)
(JTA) — Raizel Raskin’s office feels like a cluttered museum of Moroccan Jewish heritage. A photo from an old Jewish summer camp lays on the table. Another, of a rabbi meeting Moroccan dignitaries, hangs on the wall. Outside the door is a bookshelf filled with Hasidic tracts translated into Arabic. But the rest of Chabad’s multistory…
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Fast Forward Battle Lines Harden Between Jewish Settlers and Palestinians in East Jerusalem
(JTA) — To get to the Jewish compound in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, residents arrange in advance for an armored van to pick them up at a spot adjacent to the walls of the Old City. With a metal grate over its windshield and an armed guard sitting beside an armed driver, the…
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News So, Who Was Haj Amin al-Husseini Actually?
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem prior to the establishment of Israel, for inspiring Hitler to exterminate the Jews of Europe, he meant to show the long history of Palestinian anti-Semitism. Regardless of his intent, Netanyahu was hit with a tsunami of backlash from historians and politicians…
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Fast Forward African Immigrants Say Killing Reflects Discrimination in Israel
(JTA) — In the days since an Eritrean migrant was shot to death by an Israeli security guard and then beaten by a mob at Beersheba’s central bus station, a fellow migrant named Awat Ashever has insisted to other Eritreans that the killing was just a terrible mistake. It’s an uphill battle, as some of the…
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The Schmooze Larry David Nails Bernie Sanders Impression on ‘SNL’
(JTA) — “What’s the deal with emails, anyway?” Sounds like a line on a “Seinfeld” episode (or Modern Seinfeld, anyway). But last night we heard it on the “Saturday Night Live” spoof of the first Democratic debate. The speaker was Bernie Sanders’ doppelganger, “Seinfeld” creator Larry David. David is a Jewish curmudgeon who also plays…
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Fast Forward Does Doctors Without Borders Strike Reveal U.S. Double Standard on Israel?
(JTA) — One of the low points of last year’s Gaza war was Israel’s August 3 strike outside a United Nations school in the city of Rafah. The strike, meant to hit a military target according to the Israel Defense Forces, killed at least 10 people and injured dozens. It was the latest in a string…
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Fast Forward Why Morocco Is Hot Spot for Etrogs This Sukkot
(JTA) — Why the Jews want etrogs, Mohammed Douch does not entirely understand. What he does know is that they are his main customers. Each August and September, Jewish merchants come from around the world to his remote grove in the highlands of Morocco — an hourlong hike through mountains, over rocks and along cliffsides….
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