Nathan Jeffay
By Nathan Jeffay
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News Rabbinical Court Puts Thousands of Converts in Legal Limbo
Haifa, Israel – More than 40,000 Israelis who were converted to Judaism in the past decade by the state’s official conversion courts may find their conversions annulled — rendering them non-Jewish in the eyes of the law — following a ruling last week by Israel’s Supreme Rabbinical Court. The ruling, responding to an appeal in…
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News Organizers of Bible Quiz in Israel Get Question of Their Own: ‘Who is a Jew?’
Haifa, Israel – The organizers of Israel’s annual state-run Bible Quiz are used to asking tough questions. But as this year’s contest approached, the tables were turned as they were forced to answer one: Who is a Jew? The Bible Quiz is a popular highlight of the country’s yearly Independence Day celebrations, introduced by the…
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News Irate at Coverage, Jerusalem Tunes Out Al Jazeera
Haifa, Israel – Since it launched 12 years ago, Al Jazeera has been one of the few media outlets to regularly present Israeli representatives to the Arab world, but this rare open line of communication is now closed. The Qatar-based station’s coverage of Israel’s operations in Gaza during February and March hit a nerve with…
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News Israeli Arabs Take On Gentrification in Jaffa
Nazareth, Israel – Among the many tools used in the battle between Israel’s Arabs and Jews, you can add a new one: gentrification. The Arab Association for Human Rights alleges that Arab residents in a seaside neighborhood of Jaffa are being driven out so that the area can be developed for wealthy Jews. Three years…
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News Hasid Goes Undercover To Aid Drug Sting
Haifa, Israel – A few months ago, Israeli police planning a sting were hard-pressed to find a convincing small-time dealer who could buy large quantities of drugs without arousing suspicion. In the end, they settled on a novel solution: a Hasidic man who would claim he was buying for students at his yeshiva. The case…
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News Passover Law Roils Israel’s Orthodox
Haifa, Israel – Israel’s restive religious parties exploded in fury last week after a court gave an apparent carte blanche to shops and restaurants to sell bread and other leavened goods during the Passover holiday. Jewish religious law forbids the possession during Passover of bread and similar products, known in Hebrew as hametz. In Israel,…
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News New Israeli Advertising Campaign Encourages Military Service
Tel Aviv – After years of grumbling about those Israelis who avoid military service — particularly Haredi or ultra-Orthodox Jews who refuse to serve on religious grounds — and leave the burden to others, Israelis have recently begun focusing anxiously on the growing numbers of youngsters who simply don’t want to serve. The topic became…
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News As Shekel Rises, Israelis Question Sense of Fixing Economy to Dollar
Haifa, Israel – Israeli economic experts are worried that the country’s economy may face a rude shock in the months ahead as the American dollar’s plummeting position in world trading leaves the shekel dangerously overvalued. The dollar’s plunge is sending tremors around the globe, but Israel is expected to suffer more than most countries, according…
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