JTA
By JTA
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Fast Forward Hamas Offers Details of Gilad Shalit Capture
Hamas published operational details about its abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. As part of events marking five years since its gunmen tunneled across the Gaza Strip border to seize Shalit, the Hamas website Al-Qassamiyoun this week featured an expose on the operation it dubbed “Shattered Illusions.” The site confirmed what already has been reported…
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Fast Forward Israeli Orchestra Will Play Wagner Piece in Germany
The Israel Chamber Orchestra plans to perform a composition by Richard Wagner in Germany, breaking an Israel taboo against playing the anti-Semitic composer’s music. The ensemble will play “Siegfried’s Idyll” in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth at an annual festival devoted to Wagner’s work. Wagner, who lived from 1813 to 1883, is buried in Bayreuth,…
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Fast Forward Jewish Couple First on Line for Gay Wedding
Two elderly Jewish women were the first same-sex couple to marry in New York City. Phyllis Siegel, 77, and Connie Kopelov, 85, were married in Lower Manhattan at 9:02 a.m. Sunday in a ceremony witnessed by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and officiated by City Clerk Michael McSweeny. Quinn is the first openly gay speaker…
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Fast Forward Beck Compares Norway Massacre Victims to Hitler Youth
Right-wing talk-show host Glenn Beck on his syndicated radio show likened the victims of the shooting at a Norwegian summer camp to young members of the Nazi Party. In a seven-minute segment Monday morning on the Premiere Radio Network’s “The Glenn Beck Program,” Beck described the attack “as a shooting at a political camp, which…
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Fast Forward Czech Republic Will Boycott U.N. Racism Conference
The Czech Republic became the first European Union country to say it would boycott the United Nations-sponsored Durban III conference on racism. Shortly after the Czech Republic announced July 22 that it would not send a delegation to the Durban III conference set for Sept. 22 in New York, Italy and The Netherlands announced that…
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Fast Forward Norway Killer Claimed to be Anti-Muslim and Pro-Israel
The confessed perpetrator in the attack in Norway that killed scores of people espoused a right-wing philosophy against Islam that also purports to be pro-Zionist. Anders Behring Breivik is charged with detonating a car bomb outside Oslo’s government headquarters, which houses the office of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, and of shooting and killing an…
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Fast Forward Obama Holds 60% Approval Rating Among Jews
President Obama’s job approval rating among Jewish voters remained at 60 percent, but his favorability ratings easily outdistanced leading Republicans, a poll showed. The ratings for Obama, in a poll commissioned by the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, was consistent with recent polling. The numbers were significantly below the approval in the low 80s that…
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Fast Forward Orthodox Jew Buys Mengele’s Diaries at Auction
An American Orthodox Jewish man reportedly bought the diaries of notorious Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele in a controversial auction. The buyer, who was not named, is said to be a collector of World War II-era artifacts. News outlets variously reported the value of the sale at between $245,000 and $300,000. The sale was run…
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