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The Rabbi, the Rav and the Rebbe
B etween 1991 and 1994, the American Jewish community lost its rabbi (Louis Finkelstein), its rav (Joseph Soloveitchik) and its rebbe (Menachem Mendel Schneerson). Taken together, these three deaths are best understood as marking the end of the era of the great rabbi in American Jewish life — a time when leaders not only dominated…
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Protestant Group OKs Divestment From Israel
In an unprecedented victory for pro-Palestinian activists, leaders of the largest Presbyterian denomination officially equated the Jewish state with apartheid South Africa and have voted to stop investing in Israel. With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (USA), the church, boasting nearly 3 million members,…
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Religious Revival
Judaism has a long, complicated, fascinating history, and no chapter offers developments more unique than those written in the 350 years since the Jews first arrived in America. There are a number of reasons for this, though the most illuminating is perhaps that offered by the late Marshall Sklare, who noted that the United States…
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For God and Country Music: Vote Kinkster for Governor
Why would anyone in his right mind want to get into politics? Now, that’s a two-part question. If I’m crazy enough to write this piece, I’m probably crazy enough to get into politics. I’m a little too smart to be governor of a large state, but I think I can handle it. I sure hope…
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Pursuing the ‘Rodef’
The rabbinic concept of din rodef is — unfortunately — back in the news. It last made the front pages at the time of the Yitzhak Rabin assassination. Two weeks ago it resurfaced — this time, in connection with the declaration of Avigdor Nebenzahl, the learned and respected rabbi of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s…
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Brando Remembered as Family Friend
The death of stage and screen legend Marlon Brando has brought on a plethora of obituaries and appreciations that have covered all aspects of his life and career — except one. In myriad interviews throughout his life, Brando noted that the most important influences on his career were his early training with acting teacher Stella…
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Then They Came for the Gypsies: The Legacy of Death’s Calculator
In April 1941, a Romanian census taker came to the home of a suspected Roma Gypsy working as a blacksmith in the picturesque town of Schaas. The senior Nazi statistical official observing the process wrote, “He did not dare to deny his ethnical descent as Gypsy.” The census taker instructed: “Now, please write: Gypsy.” Shortly…
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Joining the Battle To Capture the Hearts of Young Jews
When Hillel’s newly minted executive, Kinney Zalesne, was in college, the Hillel on her campus at Yale held little appeal for her. For four years, she maintained a skeptical distance from the whole institution. “To me, Hillel was for people who were only socially comfortable with other Jews and whose cultural interests were mainly Jewish,”…
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Newsdesk July 9, 2004
Austrian President Dies Austrian President Thomas Klestil, the first head of the Alpine state to visit Israel, died Tuesday, two days before his scheduled retirement. Klestil became president in 1992 and restored the reputation of the Austrian presidency after his predecessor, Kurt Waldheim, was revealed to have had links to the Nazis. He also opposed…
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Shopping Center Raises Grave Questions
YONKERS, N.Y. — Last summer, when Allan Turkheim and his wife drove up to the graves of his wife’s family at the cemetery of the Congregation People of Righteousness in this city just north of the Bronx, he almost didn’t believe his eyes. Where the remains of his relatives once lay he saw only the…
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Georgia Race Reopens Debate Over Israel Lobby
WASHINGTON — Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, known for her fiery pro-Palestinian views, is trying to stage a comeback, and her effort is reigniting debates over the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in American politics. On July 29, voters in the Fourth Congressional District in Georgia will choose the Democratic candidate for the local House…
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