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Survey Shows Conservative Judaism’s Numbers Dropping
Conservative rabbis are struggling to answer a key question raised by the results of the recently released National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01: How, after decades of predominance, did they lose their claim to heading the nation’s largest synagogue movement. The $6 million survey, commissioned by the United Jewish Communities, found that only 33% of all…
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Rabbinical Election Stirs Confusion in Ukraine
KIEV — When Rabbi Azrael Haikin of Brussels was elected earlier this month to be Ukraine’s new chief rabbi, many saw it as a positive sign of Jewish renewal in a former Soviet republic. “This decision, without doubt, represents a milestone in the history of the rebirth of Jewish life in Ukraine,” said a statement…
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How a Buttonhole Camera Kept Kovno’s Past Alive
At the Center for Jewish History on September 3, traumatic recall was the subtext of Solly Ganor’s remarks at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research’s reception for his book, “Light One Candle: A Survivor’s Tale — From Lithuania to Jerusalem.” “It took me 50 years to write my diary… I had nightmares,” said Ganor, who…
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The Rabbi Plays One on TV
Scene 1: You’re at High Holy Day services when you bend to get your prayer book and notice that the man next to you looks familiar. Chances are you don’t know the guy; you’ve just seen him on TV. Scene 2: You’re enjoying the cantor’s singing and the voice suddenly hits a chord; you realize…
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Terrorism Experts Meet in Vacation Destination
PUERTO IGUAZU, Argentina – Earlier this month, tourists returning to the luxurious Tropical Das Cataratas Hotel from an excursion to the scenic Iguazu waterfalls separating Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay were greeted by a chilling sight — a throng of men in dark suits crowded around a large black message board with the ominous message: “Conference:…
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Labor Opens Its Doors
In preparation for the election of 2004, the American labor movement — with the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations at its helm — has set in motion a plan to extend its political presence. It is opening its doors to those who are not necessarily members of any union to join the AFL-CIO…
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‘Tasteless’ Hitler Wine Causing Headaches Throughout Europe
When German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries recently called a line of Italian wines “tasteless,” she wasn’t referring to the grapes. Since 1995, a winery in northern Italy called Azienda Vinicola Alessandro Lunardelli has produced a line of “historical” wines featuring images of important men of history on the label — among them, Napoleon, Che Guevara…
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Plan for Community Center Near Babi Yar Raises Ire
A group of Ukrainian Jews in America is lambasting a plan by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to build a Jewish community center near the site of the Babi Yar massacre in Kiev. In a petition sent in July to Russian-language American newspapers and Jewish organizations, the ad-hoc committee known as Save the Babi…
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UNCONVENTIONAL SHTICK ON TOUR
What does Robert Tannenbaum like about “What I Like About Jew,” the comedy-songwriter series he founded with musician Sean Altman? “It presents a set of fun and ironic songs about modern Jewish culture and life,” Tannenbaum, a journalist-songwriter, told the Forward. The duo have been bringing their tongue-in-cheek series to audiences since Christmas Eve, 1999….
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Starting a Revolution in the National Religious Party
Some women just won’t take no for an answer. After Gila Finkelstein helped to broaden Israel’s National Religious Party base as a candidate in the 1999 parliamentary elections, she thought she would gain a seat representing the party in the Knesset. But party leaders — notably Israel’s former Sephardic chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, considered the…
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Art for Art’s Sake, and More: Engaging the Collective, As Well As the Individual
Bliss By Ronit Matalon Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Co., 260 pages, $23. * * *| One of the challenges facing fiction writers in countries rife with political violence and conflict, such as Israel, is how to mediate tensions between the needs of the collective and those of the individual. While this tension between “engaged literature”…
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