JTA
By JTA
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Fast Forward Thousands Attend Passover Priestly Blessing Rite at Western Wall
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Western Wall for the traditional Priestly Blessing. The worshippers – estimated by the office of the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites in Israel at 50,000 – converged on Jerusalem’s Old City on Monday for the blessing, called Birkat Kohanim in Hebrew, during the second…
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Fast Forward Bernie Sanders Compares Poverty in Baltimore to Conditions in ‘Palestine’
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders at a campaign stop in Baltimore compared poverty in areas of the city to conditions “in the West Bank in Palestine.” “Poverty in Baltimore, and around this country, is a death sentence,” Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, said Saturday. RealClearPolitics published a video of the speech on its website….
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Fast Forward Gay Israeli Eurovision Contestant Hassled by Russia Officials
Israel’s entrant to the Eurovision Song Contest said he was harassed by Russian border control officers while travelling to Moscow for a preview event, blaming the harassment on his being gay. The incident took place a couple weeks ago, but Hovi Star spoke about it on Friday during a television interview on Maltese television station…
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Fast Forward 800 Jews Visit Temple Mount on Passover — 9 Removed for Praying
Nine Jewish visitors were removed from the Temple Mount for violating the terms of visiting the holy site, including attempting to pray. Some 800 people visited the Temple Mount on Sunday, including 685 foreign tourists and 115 Jewish Israelis. Also on Sunday, Palestinians and Jews verbally clashed at the site. Among the Jewish visitors were…
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Fast Forward WATCH: Women of the Wall Back Down After Ban on Passover Priestly Blessing Rite
The Women of the Wall group held Passover holiday prayers at the Western Wall, but did not hold a priestly blessing ceremony, after being banned by Israel’s attorney general. Some 200 women arrived at the Western Wall on buses from throughout the country to hold the Shacharit, or morning, prayers, and Mussaf, or additional, prayers…
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Fast Forward New Orleans Rabbi Overwhelmed With Donations After Pre-Passover Fire
A GoFundMe page set up to help a New Orleans rabbi and his family after their home was destroyed by a pre-Passover fire has more than reached its goal. The “Help Gabe and Abby” page established on April 20 raised more than $50,000 in its first day and as of Saturday night stood at more…
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Fast Forward Barack Obama Sounds Wistful Note on Final Passover at White House
President Barack Obama sounded a wistful note in his last Passover message as president. “Mah nishtana halailah hazeh?” said the White House statement released Friday, hours before the start of the holiday, using the Haggadah’s phrase, reserved for the youngest child at the seder meal, who asks “Why is this night different from all others?”…
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Fast Forward New York University Grad Students Vote 2-1 for BDS Measure — 57% Back Israel Academic Boycott
The graduate student union at New York University voted to approve a motion o support a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions resolution against Israel. The resolution was approved by two-thirds of the 600 union members who voted on Friday, according to reports citing the Graduate Student Organizing Committee. The committee represents more than 2,000 graduate teaching…
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