Talia Lavin is a fact checker for the New Yorker and a Forward columnist writing about Jews in American politics.
Talia Lavin
By Talia Lavin
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Fast Forward Brooklyn’s Torah Animal World Seeks Savior
(JTA) — Brooklyn Torah Animal World, an idiosyncratic collection of stuffed animals the New York Post has called “NYC’s weirdest museum,” is set to close due to financial hardship. The museum aims to lay out, for the viewer’s pleasure and edification, an array of animals depicted in the Hebrew Bible, including ibexes, emus, peacocks and…
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The Schmooze Gal Gadot Gets Wonder Woman Off Chest
(JTA) — Gal Gadot, the Israeli supermodel recently cast as Wonder Woman in the upcoming movie “Man of Steel,” opened up on an Israeli talk show about her new role. The slender Gadot has received significant criticism from Wonder Woman fans about her physique. Some claim she is too thin and too flat-chested to properly…
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News Jewish Artists Incorporating Science Into Their Displays Offer Critical Perspective
(JTA) — Jazz music drifts from speakers down to the cherry wood tables of the West Cafe in Brooklyn as the Israeli artist Nurit Bar-Shai prepares to show examples of her latest work. With deft, freckled hands, she opens a manila envelope and slides three petri dishes across the table. In the dishes are billions…
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News ‘Chained Wives’ Find Halachic Pre-Nuptial Agreement Is No Panacea
(JTA) — For years, Rachel Light felt like a hostage, worried she would be forever trapped in her marriage to Eben Light. Even in April 2012, after Eben was arrested for allegedly threatening her and was slapped with a restraining order, Rachel was unable to get a writ of Jewish divorce, or get. That made…
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News Kibbutz-Like Plans Take Shape in Rural America
(JTA) — For most of the seven years Tova Kinderlehrer lived with her young family in Pittsburgh, she wished she were somewhere else. Her son wasn’t doing well in school, her husband’s construction career had stalled and Kinderlehrer, though part of a “massive” urban community, felt isolated. She dreamed of escape. In 2011, Kinderlehrer and…
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Opinion Marijuana Goes Local in Israel
(JTA) — Taking a puff is going local in the Jewish state. According to a Bloomberg report, Israel’s tightened border security — aimed at curbing the influx of African migrants, as well as securing the country against potential threats from Lebanon and Syria — has also had the effect of hampering the country’s supply of…
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Opinion Fight for Chained Wives Goes Online
(JTA) — The websites look like those of political prisoners. Under the caption “Free Tamar Now!” there is a close-up photo of demonstrators with signs and megaphones. “Stop the abuse,” one sign reads. But FreeTamar.org and the Free Gital Facebook group seek emancipation not from literal bars or chains. Rather, they seek liberation for agunot…
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Food Starbucks’ Teavana Will Be Kosher to a Tea
(JTA) — Having conquered coffee, Starbucks is now moving into tea. The coffee giant’s newest venture, Teavana, launched with a tea bar on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says he doesn’t expect the new venture to be as big as the coffeehouse chain (“tea lacks the major caffeine count,” he…
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