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Idealistic Newcomers Reshape Desert Town
LETTER FROM SDEROT SDEROT, Israel — On August 15, Deputy Mayor Shai Ben-Yaish will report for reserve duty in Gaza, just five miles away from his desert township of 28,000. “It’s a little surreal,” he exclaimed in a recent interview at his office in the Sderot’s municipal building, during a brief cease-fire and reprieve from…
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Canadian Hospital Refuses Kidney Transplant Patient
MONTREAL — When Baruch Tegegne, a Montreal resident who played a heroic role in Israel’s rescue of his fellow Ethiopian Jews, found a kidney donor, he was hoping to have a transplant at the nearby Royal Victoria Hospital. Instead, he seems more likely to end up in court with the hospital than in one of…
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You’re in the Army Now
On the first Friday night of July, I attended Sabbath eve services at Kehillat Ra’anan, a Progressive congregation in Ra’anana, Israel. The services — a prelude to the bat mitzvah of my niece Shirah, which was to be celebrated the next day — contained a memorable and moving new ritual, one I had never witnessed…
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A Summer Symphony
An unveiling is not a thrill. It’s sad, but also drab. And it’s sort of pro forma. It happens after the Kaddish period ends but before a full year elapses. You recite a psalm. You say “El Maleh Rahamim,” the prayer about God being compassionate. (Bad form to add, “Ha!” — even if in this…
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‘Once There Was a Student at Yeshiva Univsersity…’
If you have ever believed that a restaurant charged a woman two thousand dollars for a cookie recipe or that alligators live in the New York City sewers, you have been taken in by an urban legend. Unverifiable, verbally-transmitted indicators of the fears and wishes of their tellers, urban legends are the modern equivalent of…
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Learning To Live With Terrorism: A Lesson From Israel’s Finest
If there had been any doubts before, the recent attacks in London, the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and the Turkish beach town of Kusadasi have made clear that terrorism is here to stay. Periods of quiet, it is becoming obvious, are nothing more than intermissions between terrorist acts. Since September 11, 2001, there have…
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Noted Patisserie Ventures Into Kosher Realm
Since opening its doors eight years ago, New York’s Payard Patisserie & Bistro has been known for its upscale clientele, Parisian décor and heavenly pastries. But for the last couple of months, Payard has had one more thing to its credit: kosher options. Since the spring, the shop has offered a small selection of kosher…
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Live Donation Of Organs Stirs a Debate Over Ethics
When David Koster wanted to help someone in need, he didn’t flinch from giving of himself — literally. Koster, a 56-year-old Orthodox Jew from Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, donated one of his kidneys two years ago to a man from San Francisco, Calif., whom he met for the first time on the day of the…
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Rabbi and Professor Face Off In Bioethics Debate
It was thrust and parry at the Aleph Society’s June 21 dinner at the Essex House, at which Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow refereed a dialogue on bioethics between Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and University of Chicago professor Leon R. Kass. Born to a secular family in Palestine in 1937, Steinsaltz — whom…
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‘Progressive’ Shmatte King, Sweatshop Foe, Faces Workers’ Protests Over Harassment
LOS ANGELES — Dov Charney, founder and CEO of American Apparel, has been hailed by Jewish anti-sweatshop activists as a pioneer in the fair treatment of garment workers in an industry plagued by allegations of substandard working conditions. But now his reputation is taking a hit with allegations of sexual harassment. American Apparel, which set…
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Moishe Pupik
Sherry Leffert of Cambridge, Mass., writes: “My friends and I were watching the Yiddish film ‘Amerikaner Shadkhen,’ in which the expression ‘Moishe Pupik’ occurs. We all had heard of him but wondered how the name and expression originated. Can you enlighten us?” I can hazard an educated guess. For the benefit of those readers who…
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