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Sundry Lessons of the Exodus
This week’s portion, Pekude, covers the last chapters of Exodus and so is a good place to try to draw some general lessons from our story of stories. The poets have been finding metaphors and similes in Exodus for quite some time. John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), for example, found in the burning bush (Exodus 3:1-6)…
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SHKENAZIM EMBRACE SEPHARDIC FARE IN LATEST COOKING CRAZE
Back in the day, Sabbath meals at Rissi Zweig’s home in New Jersey consisted of gefilte fish, mayonnaise-based salads, kugels, chicken, meat, a couple of cakes and some nondairy ice cream. “And that’s just Friday night,” she said. But such artery-clogging decadence is so last decade. Now, “We try to model our home after the…
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Agency Raps Chief Rabbinate Over Conversion Policy
JERUSALEM — The Jewish Agency for Israel, the quasi-governmental body that oversees immigration to Israel, is investigating claims that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate is unduly blocking thousands of Russians from converting to Judaism. At their board of governors meeting last week, leaders of the Jewish Agency for Israel voted to create a high-powered committee to…
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METROPOLITAN NEW YORK
Lectures and Discussions Publication Party: The National Council of Jewish Women celebrates the arrival of the fifth volume of the Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, published by the Eleanor Leff Jewish Women’s Resource Center, with author readings and a performance by jazz trumpeter Amy Schrift. NCJW New York Section, 820 Second Ave.; March 12, please call…
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Nation’s Ills Await ‘Deus ex Machina’
JERUSALEM — Israeli policy-makers are growing increasingly nervous about the Bush administration’s mounting diplomatic difficulties — at NATO, in Turkey and at the United Nations Security Council — and the increasing likelihood of a delay in the launch of an American campaign against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Israel’s top political, military and economic echelons have…
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French Minister Unveils Plan to Fight Antisemitism
PARIS — When the French education minister warned that antisemitism had become a “true danger” in French schools and last week announced a series of measures to tackle the issue, Jews here rejoiced that someone high up finally was listening to their complaints. The center-right government, after committing to crack down on violent antisemitic acts…
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FROM TURNING THE TABLES TO DANCING ON THEM: A PURIM ROUNDUP
With more Jews than any other city in the world, New York offers up an array of Purim activities suitable for its diverse inhabitants, with something to satisfy everyone, from traditional Purimspiels and children’s costume parades to puppets and pranks. And don’t worry, there are plenty of opportunities to tipple in tribute to Esther and…
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Foe of Gay Ban Won’t Head Conservative Panel
On the eve of what was expected to be his first session as chairman of Conservative Judaism’s supreme lawmaking body, it was announced that Rabbi Elliott Dorff, an outspoken supporter of overturning the movement’s ban on ordaining homosexuals, will not assume the position. The move came on the heels of a request by the head…
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The Great Rift
Some writers have rotten luck. Eva Etzioni-Halevy, a professor of political sociology at Bar-Ilan University, apparently researched “The Divided People: Can Israel’s Breakup Be Stopped?” before the current intifada broke out. Already, less than a year after the book’s publication, her fears about a “breakup” of the country because of rapidly growing dati-hiloni (religious-secular) tensions…
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Backing Israel on Terror, Bush Preps Postwar Push For a Settlement Freeze
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has accepted Israel’s position that the Palestinian Authority must take action against terrorism and implement substantial reforms before Israel is required to begin implementing the internationally sponsored “road map” to Israeli-Palestinian peace, including a freeze on settlement activity. At the same time, however, the administration has quietly begun preparing the…
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We the People: Israel Reads ‘The Federalist’
If the election just held in Israel showed a strong democracy in action, it also highlighted certain weaknesses of Israel’s system. There was an uproar in mid-January when a Supreme Court justice ordered broadcasters to pull the plug on the prime minister during a live press conference (which the justice said was campaign propaganda). There…
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