Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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Opinion Reuven Rivlin Called Reform Judaism ‘Idol Worship’
(JTA) — If Likud Knesset member Reuven Rivlin gets elected next month to succeed President Shimon Peres as Israel’s next president, don’t blame Reform Jewry for withholding its applause. While Rivlin is thought of as an elder statesman and voice of reason within the Likud party, he hasn’t had the kindest words for America’s largest…
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Fast Forward Calls Mount for Stronger Response to Israel Extremist Price Tag Attacks
(JTA) — Houses of worship have been vandalized, businesses defaced and car tires slashed. So-called “price tag” attacks have proliferated since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were suspended at the end of April. Intended to exact a price for Israeli government policies seen as detrimental to the settlement enterprise, such attacks have long been a problem in…
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Music Women Move Towards Approval as First Israel Kosher Supervisors
(JTA) — In a step that further expands the opportunities for women to serve as recognized authorities in Jewish law, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate for the first time is allowing women to serve as kosher supervisors. Nine women took the Chief Rabbinate’s kosher supervision exam last week in Jerusalem. Should they pass, they would become…
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Fast Forward How Orthodox Divorce Puts Israel Women on Black List
(JTA) — When she decided to split up from her husband, she went before an Orthodox rabbinical court and, after two perfunctory hearings and little discussion, received a religious writ of divorce. It was only months later that the woman learned that the court had flagged her as an adulteress and placed her on a…
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Fast Forward Back to Future as Two Sides Resume Mideast Feud
(JTA) — Nine months of negotiations were supposed to propel Israelis and Palestinians into a future of peace. Instead, the collapse of talks is threatening to make the future look much like the past. Israel’s decision last week to suspend negotiations – a day after the signing of a reconciliation between the Fatah faction of…
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Fast Forward Yair Lapid Backs Curbs on Settlements To Save Peace
(JTA) — Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he supports freezing settlement growth to help jump-start peace negotiations and vowed that his centrist Yesh Atid party would leave Israel’s governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were responsible for the collapse of the peace process. In an interview this week with JTA, his first with an…
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News Vladimir Putin’s 93-Year-Old Jewish German Teacher Remembers When
(JTA) — When Mina Yuditskaya describes Vladimir Putin, circa 1969, and Vladmir Putin, circa 2005, it’s as if she’s talking about two different people. One is a quiet, studious boy, clearly smart and diligent, but not loud or remarkable in any way. The other is the charismatic leader of Russia, a man able to invite…
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Fast Forward Benjamin Netanyahu Hangs On as King of Coalition of Rivals
(JTA) — In the lead-up to last year’s Knesset elections, the pro-settlement Jewish Home party released a controversial ad showing party chairman Naftali Bennett smiling alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The message was clear: Netanyahu will be prime minister, but a vote for Jewish Home would give Bennett what he called “a hand on…
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
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Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
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Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
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Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
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Fast Forward In Britain, a Jewish Culture Month aims to move the conversation beyond Oct. 7
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News This Jewish activist was arrested and deported for her book ‘Lesbian Love.’ 100 years later, will NYC apologize?
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Culture Ever the restless spirit, Tel Aviv-born architect and designer Ron Arad is still reinventing himself and his art
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News New Jewish-Arab political party debuts in Israel, aiming to topple Netanyahu