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Suit Highlights Failures on Art Restitution
As part of a renewed push to reclaim art seized by the Nazis, an elderly Holocaust survivor has filed suit against the Spanish government to regain a Camille Pissarro painting taken from his grandmother. Claude Cassirer, 84, filed suit Tuesday in a Los Angeles court, demanding the return of the painting — “Rue Saint-Honoré, après-midi,…
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In Praise of Impurity
A priestly revulsion against the body in general and bodily fluids in particular seems to lie behind many of the laws in Leviticus. This week’s portion, for example, records laws for controlling defilement caused by corpses, “an eruption or discharge” and “an emission of semen.” There are also prohibitions concerning a man who has “a…
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Mexican Soap Brings Out Tribe Long Hidden
Nico loves Lupita, his classmate at an exclusive Mexican boarding school. Joel and Yoli, Nico’s parents, disapprove. Nico has dumped Karen to be with Lupita, and Yoli worries that Joel’s business partnership with Karen’s father will suffer. The stress drives Joel to a heart attack. Soon after his recovery, Nico brings Lupita home. The encounter…
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Fateful Mufletas
Sometimes there are columns so serendipitous that they make you believe in fate. This is one of them. It was Sunday, May 1, the last day of Passover for you readers in America but the first day after Passover here in Israel, where the holiday is seven days instead of the eight that it is…
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Aid Package Sidesteps P.A.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers passed an emergency aid package for the Palestinians this week, but some Jewish organizations and Palestinian activists are lamenting the measure as a missed opportunity to support Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Only about $140 million of the $200 million requested by the Bush administration will end up going to development projects…
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A Tale of Two Hospitals
Fancy Private Hospital is conveniently located in Upper Manhattan, a few blocks away from a subway stop. If you like, though, you can stroll to the main building along Madison Avenue, perhaps stopping at some of the boutiques you’ll find along the way. A few other students and I took such a relaxed trip to…
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Intelligence Chief Notes Abbas’s Efforts
TEL AVIV — Israel’s chief of military intelligence, Aharon Ze’evi, said last week that Israel is not subject to any imminent nuclear threat and that the Palestinian Authority is gradually reining in militants. “There is currently no existential nuclear threat on Israel, but there are several Muslim states, with Iran at the forefront, which are…
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Mourning the Dead — and a Lost Way of Life
I’ve been in a funereal mood of late, given to thinking a lot about death. No, my current state of mind has nothing to do with the passing of the pope or, for that matter, with that of Terri Schiavo. Rather, it has entirely to do with the sudden, sudden death of my longtime friend,…
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Basque Twist Tarnishes Jerusalem’s ‘Gold’
TEL AVIV — To Israelis, Independence Day is by tradition a day of accounting. They learn how many of them there are (6.9 million last week — 76% of them Jewish — the Central Bureau of Statistics announced). They decide how they wish to be represented (in endless debates over who will win the prestigious…
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Hang Up Those Togas, Stop Up That Keg!
Leon Berg remembers a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi knocking on the door of his fraternity bedroom in College Park, Md., one Saturday morning in the 1970s. Berg was otherwise engaged, to use a euphemism, and chased away the rabbi. Undeterred, the rabbi would periodically visit the brothers at Alpha Epsilon Pi — a Jewish fraternity house…
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Aipac’s Rosen Expects Indictment
WASHINGTON — Steve Rosen, recently terminated as policy director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, expects to be indicted as soon as June, according to sources familiar with the case. Rosen has vehemently denied violating federal law and knowingly transmitting classified information. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, has issued a statement saying, “Steve Rosen never…
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