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Israel News
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Rebbe in a Box
Praying by the graves of long-deceased holy men is a time-honored Jewish practice, especially on the recent holiday of Lag b’Omer, when thousands flock to the resting place of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, in Meron. But what about the Jews who are kohanim, descendants of Aharon, and are not allowed to come into contact with…
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Putting the Old in Old Testament
Israel’s government wants to put the “old” back into the Old Testament. Following a 30-year absence, the Education Ministry has announced the return of its adult International Bible Quiz, an annual competition that tests contestants’ knowledge of the Torah, Prophets and Scriptures. Restricted in recent decades to young students, a second edition of the Bible…
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Resurrecting Woody
Woody Allen has been called many things — misogynist, self-hating Jew, quintessential New Yorker — but at least one label, narcissist, can now be staked on hard material evidence. Kaliningrad, a western Russian exclave that sits between Poland and Lithuania, may soon become the home of a statue bearing Allen’s likeness. And the statue will…
The Latest
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Mulching Your Already Read Forward
Here at the Forward, we get some interesting e-mails and letters from readers. But in early May we had a first: A reader wrote in, asking how to repurpose old issues of the paper. Margaret from Seattle wrote: “I garden and would like to know whether the Forward is printed with soy-based ink. If so,…
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To Infinity, and Beyond!
Oxygen? Check. Spacesuits? Check. Signed presidential statement declaring May to be Jewish American Heritage Month? NASA’s next space mission will carry that, too. The history of Jewish Americans will get an out-of-this-world tribute May 14, when the space shuttle Atlantis blasts off from the Kennedy Space Center, carrying the original 2006 document signed by then-president…
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Artists, Designers Reimagine Mah-jongg
Most American Jews have a grandmother, aunt or family friend who plays mah-jongg. In fact, the game was so popular among Jewish women in the 20th century that Eddie Cantor wrote a song called “Since Ma Is Playing Mah Jong,” and Woody Allen, in his film “Annie Hall,” had the character in the role of…
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Shalom, in the Catholic Home
If doling out advice — from parenting to relationships to spirituality — to American Jews and gentiles weren’t enough, celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach has gone for the big score: the bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church, the pope. By consulting with Boteach, the pope joins the ranks of Michael Jackson and Oprah…
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Helen Keller, Friend of Jews
The remarkable story of Helen Keller is well known. After losing both her hearing and sight at 19 months as the result of a fever, she went on to become perhaps the most influential crusader for individuals who are hearing and visually impaired. Now, nearly 42 years after her death, a new exhibition seeks to…
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Albom Gets the Hebrew Treatment
They’ll laugh. They’ll cry. They might even get a hug from the author. Theatergoers at two of Israel’s top playhouses will be joined in early May by writer Mitch Albom, who will attend the first Hebrew-language performances of “Tuesdays With Morrie,” his best-selling 1997 memoir. A co-production of the Haifa Municipal Theatre and Tel Aviv’s…
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The Oprah Effect Strikes Again
The so-called Oprah Effect has worked its magic on a beauty company based in Tel Aviv. Stock prices jumped more than 63% for the Israeli company UltraShape after the publication of a favorable article on Oprah.com, according to the Israeli business newspaper Calcalist. Stock in UltraShape gained 26 million shekels (roughly $7 million) in value…
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A Face Worth Watching
As most television-watching Americans know, Joan Rivers’s face is a canvas that has been worked and reworked by makeup artists and plastic surgeons alike. But her new film, which is currently screening at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival, delves beneath appearances and into the vulnerability of a 76-year-old Jewish funny girl who still gets her…
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