Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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Fast Forward Woman, 70, strips and takes shower during Gilbert Gottfried’s daughter’s Zoom Bat Mitzvah
(JTA) — At the moment when she became a woman in Jewish tradition, comedian Gilbert Gottfried’s daughter may have seen another woman naked. During the Zoom bat mitzvah for the girl, a 70-year-old woman unwittingly removed her bathing suit and took a shower in full view of the other participants, according to Page Six. An…
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Fast Forward A synagogue memorialized Judah Benjamin, the Confederacy’s most prominent Jew. Here’s how that changed.
(JTA) — About 15 years ago, a large synagogue in Northern California installed a set of windows in the religious school engraved with the names of some 175 prominent Jews, from biblical figures to famous actors. One of them, sandwiched between Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, was Judah Benjamin,…
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Fast Forward New York Is allowing day camps to open. Some Jewish camps are still staying closed.
(JTA) — When Jewish camp directors explained their reasons for canceling camp this summer, state and local prohibitions were typically at the top of the list. We can’t even think about opening camp, they would say, because the government won’t let us. Now that’s changing. States across the country have told day camps, overnight camps…
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Fast Forward There are 500,000 negative tweets every day about George Soros
(JTA) — Right-wing conspiracy theorists are increasingly claiming that George Soros is funding recent protests and riots across the United States in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “aggressive language towards Soros has exploded on social media” this week. Negative tweets about the billionaire Jewish philanthropist rose from 20,000…
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Fast Forward 2 Orthodox summer camps cancel
(JTA) — Two Orthodox overnight camps have canceled their 2020 summers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They appear to be the first two of that denomination to do so. Camp Morasha in Pennsylvania, a Modern Orthodox camp, announced in an email Wednesday that it had come to the decision following “months of deliberation, alternative planning,…
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Fast Forward The first Jewish camp that says it’s opening inspired cult hit ‘Wet Hot American Summer’
(JTA) — Here’s a story that would have been unremarkable until just a few months ago: A Jewish camp is planning to open this summer. Camp Modin in Maine has announced that it will open July 9 — two weeks later than originally planned — despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And it has set out…
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Fast Forward Conservative youth group USY cancels summer travel programs
(JTA) — The Conservative Jewish youth group United Synagogue Youth is canceling its summer travel programs for teens, the latest in a string of canceled Jewish summer programs. The announcement, made Thursday, comes as several Conservative Ramah summer camps are set to announce that they are canceling their sessions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some two…
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Fast Forward With regulations tightening, more Jewish camps set to cancel
(JTA) — At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, and as recently as a couple weeks ago, some Jewish camps had hoped they could run for part of the summer. For a growing number of camps, that hope now appears to be vanishing. Two Conservative Ramah camps look increasingly likely to cancel their sessions this…
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