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Knesset Won’t Put a ‘For Sale’ Sign on Israeli-Owned Land
An unlikely alliance of settler leaders on the right, Arab parties on the left, student groups, Likudniks and many others across the political spectrum has united to scuttle a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to privatize state-owned land. Despite the vastly different beliefs of the various opponents, for all of them it was a…
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Diplomats Don’t Eat Treyf, and Other Issues
It was during a midnight repast of shrimp couscous at a gay bar in Tel Aviv that I discovered Israel’s Foreign Ministry does not reimburse diplomatic staff for non-kosher, work-related meals in Israel. But that was just the beginning of my problems. A spokesman for the ministry informed me of the non-reimbursement policy as we…
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The Plumber, the Lawyer and the Carpenter
A few days after my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Harold the plumber came to fix my parents’ toilet. Mom told Harold about the cancer. Harold told Dad that surely it was Jesus who had sent him to fix the toilet, to help my father get right with him before he died. Dad didn’t…
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Catskills Standoff Over Rundown Camp
A standoff is simmering at a summer camp run by a Hasidic sect that is defying a mandatory “Order to Evacuate” issued by New York State for numerous safety violations. Homowack Lodge, located in Sullivan County, N.Y., about 70 miles northwest of New York City, was once a premier Borscht Belt resort. Like so many…
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Velvl Yedidowich, 83, Editor of Russian Paper
When the Forward Association launched the weekly paper in 1995, it joined a crowded media market of two dozen Russian-language newspapers in the New York metro area alone and grew to be the third-largest in circulation. It was an outspoken Jewish voice in the Russian-speaking community, when only one other publication, the Lubavitch-affiliated paper, identified…
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Israel Plays Key Role in N.J. Corruption Case, But Holds Off on Own Probe
Israel plays a prominent role in the charges of money laundering and human organ black marketing that have swept five rabbis into a New Jersey federal corruption investigation. Among other things, Israeli banks were allegedly key transit points for the money laundering operation. The rabbis accused of laundering money were allegedly told that it came…
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Congress Gives Obama Deadline For Dealing With Iran
With prospects for diplomatic engagement between the United States and Iran dimming, congressional leaders have set September as the deadline after which harsh sanctions against the Islamic Republic will be rolled out. Jewish groups have made tough sanctions against Iran a top priority and have been urging Congress to take on legislation targeting Iran’s soft…
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‘Unvarnished’ Messages From the Past
Among the first sites that tourists visit during a tour of Jerusalem is the Wailing Wall, whose name stems from the old Jewish practice of coming to the site to mourn the destruction of the Temple. Even non-Jews place notes in the wall’s crevices to express their respect and awe for the Jewish holy site….
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An Inside Look at a Syrian-Jewish Enclave
At the Deal Synagogue on the final Saturday afternoon of July, congregants were treated to the spectacle of a revered rabbi of the Syrian community disavowing his son. “It was at the Seudat Shlishit,” one community leader said, referring to the third meal of the Sabbath, when many observant Jews in the community join their…
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Ultra-Orthodox Rabbis Begin To Question Their Own Insularity
A “wake-up call” is how a number of ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders are describing the recent arrest of several New York-area rabbis on federal money laundering charges. The clearest indication of the newly awakened state came at a public symposium on business ethics held in the middle of ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn just a few days after the…
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Seven Charged With Plotting International Terrorist Attacks
Seven North Carolina residents were charged with plotting to commit terrorist attacks around the world, including in Israel. Federal prosecutors charged six American citizens and one foreign national in an indictment unsealed Monday. The group’s leader, Daniel Boyd, a convert to Islam, reportedly trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Three years ago he…
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