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J. Gutman, Rights Advocate, 80
Jeremiah S. Gutman, one of the nation’s leading civil rights attorneys and a vocal advocate for Israeli civil liberties, died February 25 after suffering a heart attack at a Metro-North Railroad station. He was 80. The night before his death, Gutman presided at a meeting of Meretz USA, a Jewish organization promoting peace and civil…
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A ‘Sex and the City’ Kind of Purimspiel
“Spring is in the air to celebrate Purim, and biblical films seem to be all the rage,” proclaimed an upbeat Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Jewish Museum’s “Centennial Purim Ball” at the Waldorf-Astoria on March 3. Event co-chairs Phyllis and William Mack and Amy and Howard Rubenstein welcomed the 750 black-tie and masked guests who…
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‘Shalom,’ With a Brogue: Irish Jews Face the Future
Jean Reuben doesn’t quite know how to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. It’s usually not an issue for someone like Reuben, an Orthodox Jew, since Jews don’t typically commemorate Catholic saints. But Reuben is also of Irish descent; her mother was from Belfast, her father from Dublin. Although she left Ireland long ago, Reuben has fond…
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The Blood of Martyrs
While on a recent trip to Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld predicted that Osama bin Laden would be captured “at some point.” The scuttlebutt is that such a “capture” seems likely to come near enough to Election Day to provide President Bush with the votes necessary to lift him out of his sagging standing…
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The Costume
Driving the family home from synagogue, Audrey looked into the rearview mirror, and posed the usual Shabbes question to Andrew in his car seat, “So, katshkela, did you get anything out of Ki Tissa, today’s Torah portion?” “I sure did!” “Mazel tov! Tell us.” “I got a great idea for a costume! For next Halloween.”…
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Groups Back Bill To Monitor Universities
WASHINGTON — Risking a clash with civil libertarians, major Jewish communal organizations are lobbying the Senate to approve a bill that would tighten federal monitoring of government-funded Middle East studies programs at universities. The bill, which passed the House of Representatives overwhelmingly, is pitting the Jewish organizational community against professors associations and leading international studies…
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Like ‘Braveheart’ Comes to the Crucifixion, Critic Says
The day after Mel Gibson raked in $25 million with the launch of his blood-and-gore Crucifixion film, an overflow crowd of 400 flocked to the Center for Jewish History on February 26 for a forum on “Religion, Responsibilities and Relations: Responses to Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion.’” Sponsored by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and…
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Peggy Tishman, 84, Communal Leader
Margaret “Peggy” Tishman, a communal leader and philanthropist for more than five decades, died March 5 at the age of 84 in Manhattan after an illness. One of the guiding forces behind the merger of the United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York in the late…
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Bouncing Back From ‘Insufficient Funds’
A check my daughter received for her bat mitzvah came back from the bank [marked] “insufficient funds.” The gift was from a school friend, whose parents I don’t know well. My husband says I should call them and see if it is okay to redeposit the check, but I don’t want to embarrass anyone. —…
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Author Challenges Rambam’s Principles
A religious debate over intellectual freedom is brewing in the Orthodox world, following the recent publication of a book challenging the widespread view within Orthodoxy that Maimonides’s Thirteen Principles of Faith represents a binding articulation of Jewish theological dogma. In his book, “The Limits of Orthodox Theology: Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles Reappraised,” Marc Shapiro, a professor…
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Hovering Between the Fantastic and the Mundane
Any writer concerned with the direction of language understands well that the future of a language — especially one with such a spectacular and contested history as Hebrew — rests in the minds of its youngest speakers. David Grossman, one of Israel’s most highly respected writers, has created perhaps the sturdiest and most convincing young…
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