Ori Nir
By Ori Nir
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News Rabbis, Cantors Step Up Campaign Against Torture
WASHINGTON — An interdenominational group of more than 700 North American rabbis and cantors is stepping up its “campaign to end U.S.-sponsored torture” through a combination of political lobbying, protests and grass-roots mobilizing in synagogues. Last week the group, Rabbis for Human Rights North America, sent orientation packages to about 4,000 rabbis across the nation,…
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News Bush Seeks Ways To Help Sharon Beat Netanyahu
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is seeking ways to bolster Israeli Prime Minister Sharon in his Likud primary fight against Benjamin Netanyahu, while trying to avoid the appearance of meddling in an Israeli election. Senior administration officials recently told Jewish communal leaders — many of whom privately back Sharon — that the White House intends…
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News In Storm’s Wake, Groups Fight Medicaid Cuts
WASHINGTON — America’s vast network of Jewish social service providers is seizing on the opportunity to use Hurricane Katrina to fight Republican efforts to slash Medicaid, the nation’s chief public health program for the poor. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, GOP lawmakers have put off their plan to cut $10 billion from Medicaid…
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News Groups Hail Rehnquist, but Dershowitz Offers Dissent
WASHINGTON — Even as late chief justice William Rehnquist was being eulogized by several Jewish organizations, America’s most prominent Jewish lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, was accusing him of bigotry and discrimination. Jewish groups praised Rehnquist, 80, who died September 3 after a highly publicized bout with cancer, as “the very model of a chief justice,” and…
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News Orthodox Group Ups Criticism of Israel
WASHINGTON — After months of refusing to oppose the dismantling of Jewish settlements in Gaza, the largest Orthodox organization in America is stepping up its criticism of the Israeli government. The Orthodox Union, representing 1,000 congregations in North America, sent an August 31 letter to the Israeli Supreme Court, urging it to forbid Prime Minister…
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News Hurricane Toughens Fight for Israel Aid
WASHINGTON — As the federal government rushes to fund hurricane-related recovery efforts, pro-Israel activists in Washington are worried that Congress will be reluctant to send Jerusalem the $2.1 billion of additional post- disengagement aid that it is requesting. With New Orleans destroyed and the surrounding region devastated, lawmakers will be hard pressed to explain to…
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News Liberal Groups Split With Allies Over Roberts
WASHINGTON — As church-state activists launched their harshest assault yet on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, they criticized Jewish organizations that have refused to join the fight. In one of the strongest attacks on Roberts, the Washington-based interest group Americans United for Separation of Church and State issued a report stating that the nominee’s record…
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News Secular Coalition To Lobby Against ‘Theocracy’
The nonbelievers are fighting back. The Secular Coalition for America — which sees itself as the voice of America’s agnostics, humanists and nontheists — has just hired its first full-time Washington lobbyist: former Nevada state senator Lori Lipman Brown, a longtime civil rights activist. Her job will be to seek out alliances with Jewish groups…
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