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Bloomberg Blurs Party Lines in Bid for Jewish Votes
New York’s Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is leaving nothing to chance in his bid to lock up the Jewish vote in November. In recent days, the mayor has launched a high-profile “Democrats for Bloomberg” group featuring several icons of New York Jewish liberalism. He hired Governor George Pataki’s Jewish outreach director and declared his opposition…
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Remembering the Rosh Hashanah Cards of Yesteryear
When I was a child in New Jersey, I would correspond with a cousin who lived in Israel. I relished the missives I got from afar. Back then, my thoughts of Israel were based on what I saw in my Hebrew school textbook, “World Over”: women on tractors and desert battles. The letters were a…
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Hurricane Relief Plan Stirs School Vouchers Debate
The Bush administration’s plan to pay for the private school education of Hurricane Katrina evacuees has triggered the first major debate over church-state separation in the relief effort. During a tour of Houston last week, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings proposed that the government give $488 million to private schools that have taken in evacuated children…
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Guilt, Shame, Tantrums And Rosh Hashanah
The other day, I yelled at Josie. Really yelled. She has asthma, and so she tends to have a serious, multiday bout of wheezing every couple of months. I hate these times. She gasps for breath, and her eyes get glassy. But I trust our asthma and allergy doc, and I think she’s getting the…
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In Storm’s Wake, Groups Fight Medicaid Cuts
WASHINGTON — America’s vast network of Jewish social service providers is seizing on the opportunity to use Hurricane Katrina to fight Republican efforts to slash Medicaid, the nation’s chief public health program for the poor. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, GOP lawmakers have put off their plan to cut $10 billion from Medicaid…
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Baton Rouge Synagogue Closes Shelter for Victims
A Baton Rouge, La., synagogue has closed its shelter for victims of Hurricane Katrina and placed its rabbi on administrative leave. The board of Congregation B’nai Israel asked Rabbi Barry Weinstein last week to take a paid leave of absence for an unspecified period. Weinstein had led B’nai Israel’s effort to house dozens of evacuees…
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Utah Station Pulls Plug on Radio Rabbi
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is claiming that a radio station in Utah abruptly canceled his national talk show after he invited Hurricane Katrina evacuees to settle in the state and to attend a Salt Lake City speaking engagement of his slated for this week. Boteach, best known for his book “Kosher Sex,” claims that higher ups…
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Filmmaker Sues Philanthropist Over Documentary
A documentary heralding the achievements of famous Jews has triggered a bitter legal fight between the filmmaker and the philanthropist behind the project. Filmmaker Gil Baker is suing developer and money manager Robert I. Lappin and his philanthropic foundation, claiming that he has not been paid for his work on “Great Jewish Achievers.” Lappin, who…
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Palestinians Destroy Synagogues in Gaza
TEL AVIV — Monday’s dramatic scenes of synagogues being vandalized and, in some cases, destroyed by Palestinians in Gaza reminded Oded Tira of Israel’s pullout from the Sinai Desert nearly a quarter-century ago. Tira, a retired brigadier general in the Israeli army, was in charge of the 1982 evacuation of Yamit, the last Jewish settlement…
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Group’s Staffer Indicted on Count Of Embezzlement
A grand jury in New York has indicted a longtime employee of one of the country’s most storied and influential Jewish organizations for diverting at least $1 million from the company, the Forward has learned. The employee, Donalde Fergus, worked in financial department of the American Jewish Committee. He was indicted August 24 for grand…
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Newsdesk September 16, 2005
Security Up at L.A. Shuls The mayor and police chief of Los Angeles assured the Jewish community of a strong police presence during the High Holy Days. The move was meant to calm nerves following new threats from Al Qaeda and recent terrorism-related indictments. “We will raise our visibility to an even higher level than…
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