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Concerns Mounting Over Fate of Iranian Jewry
With international tensions at a fever pitch over Iran’s nuclear ambitions and the violent reaction in Tehran to the European cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad, concerns are rising about the fate of the Iranian Jewish community after its departing head took an unusual public swipe at the president of the Islamic Republic. Haroun Yeshaya,…
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Vote To Divest Seen Having Little Effect
When the Church of England’s main legislative body voted last week to divest from companies whose products are used by Israel in the “occupied territories,” Jewish groups were quick to offer condemnation. Missing, however, was the sense of alarm that greeted the June 2004 decision by the Presbyterian Church (USA) to start the divestment process…
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Palestinian Americans Push Religious Pluralism in P.A.
WASHINGTON — Palestinian American activists are vowing to lobby Hamas against turning the West Bank and Gaza into an Islamic theocracy. Anxious about the victory of the Islamic fundamentalist group in last month’s Palestinian parliamentary elections, Palestinian American leaders say that they will push for laws favoring American-style church-state separation, pluralism, equality and inclusiveness. “We…
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Shoah Cartoon Withdrawn
An Australian cartoonist said that two of his old works dealing with the Holocaust were entered into an Iranian newspaper contest without his permission. Michael Leunig, whose Holocaust cartoons were rejected for publication in Australia in 2002, said Tuesday that he had discovered they were submitted to Iran’s Hamshahri newspaper. “This is a fraud and…
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Chinese Scholar of Judaic Studies Urges Closer Ties
In the same week that China handed Israel a major diplomatic victory by agreeing to allow the isssue of Iran’s nuclear weapons program to be reported to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, China’s leading scholar of Judaic studies urged Jews and Jewish organizations to seek a stronger relationship with China. Xu Xin,…
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After a Hiatus, Jewish Life Returns to West Philly
Synagogues used to be a common sight in the historically Jewish neighborhood of West Philadelphia. But when congregation Kol Tzedek opened its doors recently, it was the first time that a synagogue had operated in the neighborhood in more than a decade. West Philadelphia was once a stronghold. Jewish life flourished there until the 1960s,…
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Now Shmear This
Jane Civins of Cranston, R.I., sent me a copy of The Baker’s Catalogue, a mail-order business run out of White River Junction, Vt. The company’s many products include “Spreadable N.Y. Chocolate Blackout Schmear” ($6.95 for a 16 oz. can). This catalog also has a recipe for chocolate blackout cake — made, naturally, with the aforementioned…
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Keeping the Land of Milk and Honey Pollution-free
When the Jews of the first aliya arrived in Palestine at the end of the 19th century they found a natural, unblemished landscape. Fast-forward to today and Israel is, ecologically speaking, a mess. According to environmental activist Rabbi Michael Cohen, “the Dead Sea is disappearing, the level of air pollution is doubling every 10 years,…
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Be Fruitful and Multiply… or Else
Recently, at the New York Jewish Film Festival, I saw a movie called “Be Fruitful and Multiply.” It’s a portrait of four ultra-Orthodox women in Israel and Brooklyn, all talking about the joys and pressures of having huge families. Mostly the joys. One woman, who’s been pregnant or nursing for 25 of the 26 years…
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A Muslim Call From Europe For Faith in Civility
I was in Copenhagen this past October when the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad started to provoke demonstrations in Denmark. While being interviewed by a journalist at Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that published the caricatures, I was told how intense the debates had been among the editorial staff. The Jyllands-Posten journalist told me about…
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Shoah Suit Puts Scrutiny On Lauder’s Art Collection
When the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, a Viennese art collector who perished in the Dachau concentration camp, began trying to track down their ancestor’s collection of Egon Schiele paintings, they hit what they thought was a stroke of luck: At least two of the pieces seemed to have ended up in collections associated with cosmetics…
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