Nathan Jeffay
By Nathan Jeffay
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The Schmooze Video: Photo Shredding on the Knesset Floor
In 1988, Israel’s Central Election Commission banned the extremist lawmaker Rabbi Meir Kahane from running again for Knesset, on the grounds that his party was racist and undemocratic. Since then, he’s never been seen at the Knesset podium… apart from yesterday. An Arab lawmaker, Ahmad Tibi, held up a photograph of Kahane at the podium,…
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Israel News Rabbi’s Death Could Splinter Ultra-Orthodox
When Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, Israel’s most revered rabbi, died on July 18 at the age of 102, he left his community at a crossroads. Elyashiv, broadly accepted as the leader of the “Lithuanian” Haredi community — meaning all Ashkenazi Haredim who aren’t members of a Hasidic sect — took this important post from another consensus…
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The Schmooze Israeli Lawmaker Destroys New Testament
He’s not exactly known for his sensitivity, but Israeli lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari has rarely made a statement that has the potential to offend quite so many people. Many lawmakers were peeved to receive a complimentary New Testament in their Knesset mailbox, courtesy of a Christian publisher. Anything perceived as missionary activity touches a very raw…
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Israel News Occupation Divides Israeli Protest Movement
One year after Israel’s social protest movement was born, activists are battling over its soul. Throughout June, protestors once again started to flow into the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday nights. They all claimed to be reviving the demonstrations held weekly last summer, when tent cities proliferated all over the country. But it quickly…
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Opinion Will Olmert Be Back?
Will he, or won’t he? Now that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been exonerated on the key corruption charges that forced him out of office four years ago, everyone is asking whether he’ll try to make a political comeback. After all, it has emerged since he left office that he was involved in…
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The Schmooze Orthodox Pop Star Giggles About the Internet
He may have got the world hooked on the latest web browser, but don’t go to Alex Clare for website recommendations. The hit British-Jewish recording artist and one-time boyfriend of Amy Winehouse provided the music for commercials for the latest Internet Explorer with his song Too Close. But asked about his taste in websites by…
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The Schmooze Praying to Keep Haredim Out of the IDF
Two weeks ago the Shmooze was a bit bamboozled by the complete loss of any sense of proportion by Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi. Now, rabbinic melodrama seems to be spreading. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar claimed that people should pray against plans to give state salaries to Reform rabbis just like they pray when “rockets are…
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The Schmooze Praying Against Rabbi Funding Changes
It’s interesting seeing the spiritual guidance of Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi regarding how and when we should make emergency requests from God. According to Shlomo Amar, Israelis should be praying that a state decision to fund some Reform and Conservative rabbis isn’t implemented in the same way that they pray when “rockets are fired at…
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