Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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News Pew Study Casts Long Shadow Over Jewish Federations General Assembly in Israel
(JTA) — When it’s held in Israel once every five years, the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly aims to focus on challenges and opportunities facing the Jewish state. In large part, this year was no exception. Israel’s president, prime minister and other prominent politicians addressed the crowd. Sessions covered Israel’s foreign and domestic…
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Opinion Is Robinson’s Arch Part of Western Wall — Or Not?
(JTA) — The key dispute in the recent feud between Women of the Wall and some of the group’s founders is whether Robinson’s Arch — an area adjacent to the Kotel plaza meant for egalitarian prayer — counts as the Western Wall. Anat Hoffman and most of the group’s board has said they’re willing, in…
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Fast Forward First Woman to Head Bank of Israel Targets Economic Inequality
(JTA) Andromeda Hill is a beachfront complex of luxury apartments connected by tree-lined pathways that features such amenities as a spa and business center. Five minutes down the road is Ajami, a low-income neighborhood profiled in the 2009 film of the same name that remains one of this city’s poorer districts. Such gaps in income…
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Fast Forward Prisoner Release Raises Tensions in Israel Coalition
(JTA) — Israel’s peace talks with the Palestinians remain mostly shrouded in secrecy, but one thing is certain: The Palestinian prisoner release that paved the way for their resumption is increasing tensions in Israel’s governing coalition. Israel completed the second stage of the four-part release on Tuesday, setting free 26 prisoners who had committed crimes…
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Opinion No Need for Directions to Rav Ovadia’s Funeral
(JTA) — I didn’t need to ask directions. Stepping out of the Central Bus Station, I saw them, men in hats and coats walking together slowly, a steady stream moving east along one of Jerusalem’s central thoroughfares to the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. At 5 p.m., an hour before the funeral, the streets were already…
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Fast Forward English Speakers Grab Bigger Role in Israel Politics — Halting Hebrew and All
In the eight years since Rabbi Avrohom Leventhal moved from Baltimore to this central Israeli city of 80,000, he has trained as a technical writer, taken over a local charity and become president of his synagogue. Now Leventhal is hoping to add city councilman to his resume. Leventhal loves Beit Shemesh, but none of his…
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News Jerusalem Biennale Festival Aims To Showcase World of Jewish Arts
(JTA) — The reader opened with a recitation of Psalm 48 followed by a contemporary poem before yielding the floor to five male dancers, all wearing the standard haredi Orthodox uniform of black pants and white button-down shirt. One had bushy earlocks but no yarmulke. So began the inaugural Jerusalem Biennale, a six-week contemporary art…
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Fast Forward Israelis Jostle for Gas Masks as Syria Tensions Rise
(JTA) — Daniela Hayoum arrived at a Tel Aviv post office at 7 a.m. and took a number. The line of people waiting for gas masks was long and Hayoum stepped away to run errands. She returned in the afternoon to find hundreds of Israelis crowding under a hot sun on the building’s wide steps,…
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Fast Forward Vance says ‘religious liberty is a Christian concept.’ Where does that leave Jews?
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