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One of Vilna’s Own Trains a Lens on the City (Correction)
An article in the 12/22 issue of the Forward misstated the name of Mira Van Doren’s new documentary about Vilna. It is called “The World Was Ours.”
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Boydem II:Yiddish and Cockney?
We ended last week’s column with the Yiddish expression plotkes, loksh, boydem, politsa, “crappies, noodles, attic, shelf,” or alternately, loksh, boydem, politsa or boydem mit politsa, in the sense of an unrelated hodgepodge, or, as one says in colloquial English, “everything but the kitchen sink.” Why these particular four items were chosen to express the…
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New Studies Put U.S. Jewry Over 6 Million Mark
Two major new demographic studies estimate the American Jewish population at well above 6 million people, indicating a growing Jewish community that contrasts sharply with popular images of Jewish decline. In particular, scholars say, the new studies appear to refute a widely publicized survey conducted in 2001, which counted 5.2 million American Jews and sparked…
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Rabbis Pledge To Monitor Kosher Plant Conditions
Leaders of Conservative Judaism are planning to create a new ethical certification system for kosher food in response to the findings of a special commission that investigated working conditions at the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse. The five-person commission, formed by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Rabbinical Assembly, was created following an investigative…
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U.N. Chief Pressured To Bypass Businessman
The incoming United Nations secretary-general has yet to take office, but a controversy is already engulfing his nascent relationship with the American Jewish community. South Korea’s Ban-Ki Moon, who will begin his term January 1 with little experience regarding Israel and its supporters, is coming under fire for his team’s relationship with a little-known Orthodox…
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Amid Chaos, Hamas Talks Pragmatism
Rateb Quzmar, 20, and his cousin Mohammed Quzmar, 20, lie side by side in a small room on the fourth floor of Ramallah Hospital. This wasn’t their plan. Rateb came from Qalqilya last Friday to visit Mohammed, who had been shot three days earlier by a member of Fatah-allied Palestinian security forces — “because they…
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State Department Weighs Plan for Palestinian State
The Bush administration is considering a plan to declare an independent Palestinian state with provisional borders by the end of 2007. The idea has been “kicked around” in the State Department for several weeks, according to sources. It could be one element of a new American Middle East peace plan, the sources added, if President…
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U.S. Judge Dismisses Suit Against Israeli General
Washington — The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dealt a blow last week to ongoing attempts to sue Israeli officials in America over alleged war crimes. In a December 14 decision, Judge Paul Friedman ordered the dismissal of the civil lawsuit against former Israeli army chief of staff, Moshe Ya’alon. Friedman argued…
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Knesset Mulls Ban on Proselytizing
For 15 years Rabbi Shalom Butman has been standing next to a stand on the Nahalat Binyamin boardwalk in central Tel Aviv calling on male passers-by to put on tefillin. The 72-year-old Chabad activist never paid attention to whether they were minors or not, but now he might have to — or find himself in…
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Home for the Holidays
With the endless violence in the Middle East, it would be easy to say that my girlfriend, Shereen, and I — she is Muslim; I am Jewish — represent the potential for world peace. But of course, like the world, our story is a little more complicated than that. Shereen’s father, Ahmed, is from the…
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What’s a Jew To Do on Christmas?
Pennsylvania Family Festivities Don’t bother with the Chinese takeout this year. Instead, round up the whole family and head to Being Jewish at Christmas, a celebration presented by the National Museum of American Jewish History. This year’s party includes performances by ShirLaLa (Shira Kline), who blends music, dance, art and stories for kids; magician and…
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