Renee Ghert-Zand
By Renee Ghert-Zand
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The Schmooze Tony Blair Cozies Up To Divorcee Ofra Strauss
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been spending quite a bit of time in Israel since becoming the Quartet’s representative there. According to the Daily Mail (which in turn cites Maariv), the married Englishman has been spending a noticeable amount of that time with 51-year-old, twice-divorced Israeli “tycoon” Ofra Strauss. Blair has apparently known…
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The Schmooze Toronto Day School Blasts Shofar World Record
The students at Associated Hebrew Schools of Toronto are tooting their own horns now that it looks like they have broken the world record for the largest shofar ensemble. Last week, the school’s community gathered together to blow 1,406 shofars simultaneously, shattering the prior record of 796 set in Boston in 2006. The new record…
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The Schmooze Was Obama’s ‘Jew Tax’ Gaffe a Freudian Slip?
What was that, Mr. President? You meant to say “janitor,” but out came “Jew.” Those words starting with the letter “J” can really trip you up. In a speech President Obama gave this past Saturday evening at the Congressional Black Caucus annual awards dinner in Washington, it seemed as though he was saying that there…
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The Schmooze Iran Hiker Josh Fattal’s Judaism Kept Secret
In an exclusive report, the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia has revealed that Josh Fattal, one of the two American hikers released from Iranian prison last week, is Jewish. This information had been purposely kept out of the press for the 26 months of his captivity for obvious reasons. Although local friends, acquaintances and rabbis in…
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The Schmooze California Unemployment Office Accused of Religious Discrimination
Jeff Weinberger would like to see the California State Employment Development department do some teshuvah this High Holiday season. The San Francisco resident, who was laid off from his executive-level hi-tech marketing job last month, received a notice to attend a “re-employment eligibility assessment appointment” on September 29, the first day of Rosh Hashanah. When…
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The Schmooze Friday Film: The Teacher Who Gave Everything
The visual metaphor in the opening scenes of “HaMorah Irena” (“Teacher Irena”), the Ophir Award-nominated documentary about a teacher in the poorest neighborhood of West Jerusalem, tells you everything you need to know about this exceptionally devoted educator. However, you don’t know that until you come to the end of the film. In “Teacher Irena,”…
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Life City Council Member Making Change for Women
It seemed as though Rachel Azaria, then a 30-year-old mother of two, came out of nowhere to run on a grassroots, independent party ticket and win a seat on the 31-member Jerusalem City Council in 2008. Although this was her first foray into politics, she was already a recognized figure in the world of Israeli…
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The Schmooze Jewish Freshman Makes U. Maryland Hoops Team
Jacob Susskind “gave it a shot to just walk on” to the University of Maryland’s NCAA Division 1 basketball team, and that is exactly what this talented athlete ended up doing. The 18-year-old recent graduate of the Golda Och Academy (formerly known as the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex & Union) in West Orange,…
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