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Rav, Rebbe, Rabbi
M r. Rosenberg writes from Kansas City: “A group of us were discussing the derivation of the word ‘rabbi.’ We know what it means, obviously, and are aware of its various permutations — rov, reb, rebbe, rebenyu. But what is the root meaning of the word?” The root meaning of the Hebrew word rav, “rabbi,”…
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Rabbi Facing Fraud Charges Plans Return to Fundraising
A Brooklyn rabbi charged with defrauding the federal government of almost $700,000 is proclaiming his innocence and vowing that his legal troubles have only temporarily halted his prodigious political fundraising. Milton Balkany, the dean of an Orthodox girls’ school in Boro Park, surrendered to authorities on August 26 to face charges that he used a…
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FLASH FRAMES
Picnic Grounds: A Novel in Fragments By Oz Shelach City Lights, 115 pages, $11.95. * * *| Had Ernest Hemingway succeeded in writing the novel suggested by the vignettes that punctuate “In Our Time,” the result might have resembled Oz Shelach’s “Picnic Grounds: A Novel in Fragments.” The novel, Shelach’s first, is set in an…
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CAMPAIGN CONFIDENTIAL
Dean Defense: In his latest attempt to mend fences after the dustup over his comment that the United States “ought not to take sides” in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Howard Dean is trying to assuage the ire of Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman. In an interview with the Associated Press, Foxman described Dean’s remark, recorded…
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J’Accuse
J’Accuse By Aharon Shabtai New Directions, 64 pages, $14.95. * * *| In “J’Accuse,” whose title is taken from Emile Zola’s famed letter against the French government during the Dreyfus Affair, Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai accuses his society of brutally oppressing the Palestinians. In the title poem, Shabtai refers to Mohammed al-Dura, photos of whose…
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Democratic Council Rebuilds New York Chapter
Just in time for the Democratic presidential primaries, a Jewish Democratic group is rebuilding its presence in New York. The National Jewish Democratic Council, founded in 1990 as “the national voice of Jewish Democrats,” has hired fundraiser Jill Straus to spearhead its revived New York chapter. Straus will reach out to donors, candidates, officials, community…
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Remembering the Woman
Small Change: A Collection of Stories By Yehudit Hendel Brandeis University Press/ University Press of New England, 142 pages, $19.95. * * *| Yehudit Hendel is being rediscovered. Hendel, born in 1926, first established herself as a major Israeli author in the 1950s, a time when very few female Hebrew prose writers gained wide recognition,…
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Suit To Press Bush on Jerusalem’s Status
A New Yorker living in Israel filed a law suit this past week against the Bush administration in an effort to press it to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Ari Zivotofsky claims in the suit that the State Department broke the law when it refused to list Israel as the place of birth…
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Hip Modern Orthodox ISO Same
For those who consider Jewish observance paramount, there’s another option: Before there was Friendster, there was Frumster, an Israel-based company bought this week by a group of American Orthodox investors. Grayson Levy, who immigrated to Israel from Canada in 1995, created Frumster’s forebear, DosiDate.com in 1997 (dosi is Hebrew slang for an Orthodox Jew). Four…
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Setting Spoken Truth in Motion
Arnie Zane stood 5 feet, 5 inches tall and had the face of a street-wise corner shopkeeper. But when the Bronx-born Jewish boy danced, he commanded the stage with the precision and power of a boomerang. Together with Bill T. Jones, his partner in life and art, they were the oddest of couples — Arnie…
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Jewish Groups Choose Sides on Vouchers
WASHINGTON — With Congress battling over a bill that would strongly influence the future of the school vouchers debate nationwide, Jewish groups on both sides are jumping into the fray. Orthodox Jewish organizations are rallying behind a measure passed by the House of Representatives last week that would bring vouchers to the District of Columbia….
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