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JCPA Taking Direct Aim at Anti-Israel Boycotters
With anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions efforts gaining visibility, the Jewish community’s main public-policy coordinating body is for the first time confronting the BDS movement as a specific and stated priority. At its recent annual plenum, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs passed a resolution stating that BDS should now “be regarded with the utmost…
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Shas Breaks Old Taboo, Joins Zionists
Israel’s largest ultra-Orthodox political party is eliciting outrage from those to its right and a mix of anxiety and applause from those to its left after breaking a 113-year-old taboo and joining the Zionist establishment. Back in 1897, several leading ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, rabbis declared that it was prohibited for Orthodox Jews to get involved…
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A Sex Scandal Splits Orthodox Zionist World Between Silence and Action
Israel’s influential Orthodox Zionists have divided into two camps following a sexual-abuse scandal involving one of their most renowned and charismatic leaders, stoking fears for the future of rabbinic authority. Takana, a rabbinic forum established in 2003 to clamp down on sexual misconduct by Orthodox educators, went public February 15 with allegations that Mordechai “Moti”…
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The Tribe That Bites
I never cared much for vampires. Count Chocula cereal never swam in my bowl. Anne Rice novels eluded me, and I can’t look at blood without needing to lie down. The latest mania for the night creatures initially deterred me even more. But it’s undeniable that vampires are turning up in curious places: a bayou…
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Chronicling Obama’s Presidency Via Poetry
Starting Today, 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days Edited by Rachel Zucker and Arielle Greenberg University of Iowa Press, 210 pages, $20.00. When President Kennedy uttered the now famous phrase “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country,” during his inaugural address, America took…
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U.S. Delays Iran Sanctions While Persuading Israel Not To Attack
The United States is ramping up efforts to ensure that Israel does not surprise the world with a military attack on Iran as Washington extends its deadline for implementing stronger sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Washington’s clear but delayed shift toward sanctions and away from dialogue promises a period of uncertainty; American officials now say…
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The Forward This Week
In this week’s podcast, Forward editor Jane Eisner has a roundup of the stories in the February 26 issue of the Forward; Nadja Spiegelman interviews filmmaker Nicole Opper on her new documentary about a young black woman raised by Jewish lesbian parents, and Allison Gaudet Yarrow speaks with author Hannah Seligson on the generation delaying…
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A Heartwarming Drawing
Click on the thumbnail to the right for a larger version: Eli Valley is finishing his first novel. His column, “Comics Rescued From a Burning Synagogue in Bialystok and Hidden in a Salt Mine Until After the War,” appears monthly in the Forward. His Web site is www.evcomics.com. []: https://forward.com/backward-purim/
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The Gifts We Make
Sunday was my son Jeremy’s sixth birthday party, and I spent the few days prior baking his birthday cake. On Thursday, I bought ingredients and on Friday I baked four rectangular cakes. Saturday night, I decorated the cake. First, I made white, red and black frosting. I then assembled two layers, shaped the cake like…
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Magen David Adom and Its U.S. Arm Feud Over Their Future
American Friends of Magen David Adom is a staple of American Jewish charity for Israel. Children give their bar and bat mitzvah money to it, communities take group photos in front of ambulances they donated to Israel through it, and sons and daughters dedicate plaques at Israeli medical centers in memory of their parents. The…
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Israelis Debate Giving Expats a Vote They Don’t Seem To Want
The image of Israelis living outside Zion — the yordim, as they are sometimes derogatorily called — has come a long way since the 1970s, when Yitzhak Rabin referred to them as “fallen weaklings.” To such an extent, in fact, has this stigma faded that a controversial bill proposed in the Knesset in early February…
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