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Broken bodies and grieving souls: A rabbi cares for the dead in Surfside
Rabbi Leibel Miller, director of the Chevra Kadisha society of Florida, has been working around the clock since the Champlain Towers South collapsed on June 24, and his body is beginning to show it. During an interview with the Forward Thursday evening, he yawned and coughed and admitted his health was faltering from a lack…
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Teachers’ unions are increasingly debating Israel — and in some places are backing boycotts
(JTA) — Public school unions in the U.S. are increasingly becoming a hotbed of Israel discourse, with the largest teachers’ union becoming the latest organized body to deliberate measures that censure Israel and support the Palestinian cause. Members of the National Education Association at the group’s annual meeting held over the weekend (with President Joe…
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Meet Benyamin Cohen: newshound, chicken owner and host of our new morning newsletter
This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. And click here for a PDF of stories to savor over Shabbat and Sunday that you can download and print. When Benyamin Cohen was 5…
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In Israel, activists and families push for stiffer sentences for child sex abusers
TEL AVIV — The story is all too familiar. A child is sexually assaulted and the perpetrator either goes unpunished or gets a short prison sentence, even community service. Activists describe a vicious cycle in which victims and their families have such low expectations of the Israeli justice system’s response that victims do not even…
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With vaccines scarce at home, Central and Latin America Jews journey to the US
Samuel Hayon, a Venezuelan living in Miami, was shocked when he went to Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital to try and get the COVID-19 shot in February. “I just ran into the entire Hebraica Israeli!” he said, referring to Caracas’s Jewish community. Hayon had noticed a trend that would only grow in the coming weeks and…
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Jewish camps for kids with cancer take extraordinary precautions this summer to protect campers’ health
As the pandemic subsides, Jewish camps across the nation are taking precautions against COVID-19, and have opened for a mostly normal summer. But camps that serve children with chronic diseases and disabilities, who may be particularly vulnerable to COVID, have had to be extraordinarily careful to protect their campers — even if it means postponing…
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When the banks say ‘no,’ Israelis in need turn to a growing nonprofit option
In the weeks leading up to Purim 2020, Evyatar Cohen built up his inventory at the Kos Shel Bracha Wine Shop, his Jerusalem liquor store. Then COVID-19 hit. Many Israelis canceled Purim celebrations and by Passover, Israel was under a strict nationwide lock down. Although the wine shop was technically open under the Israeli government’s…
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David Mermelstein, Holocaust survivor who fought Nazi-era insurance companies, dies at 92
David Mermelstein, a survivor of Auschwitz who devoted much of his life to helping fellow survivors and educating children about the Holocaust, died July 6 in Miami at the age of 92. Mermelstein regularly spoke to elementary, middle and high school students in Miami-Dade County. In addition, he participated in special mentor programs at Miami-Dade…
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When Holocaust education meets critical race theory: A partisan history debate unfolds in Louisiana
(JTA) — At first, Danny Mintz was excited to learn that lawmakers in his state, Louisiana, were considering mandating Holocaust education in public schools. A director at a good-government group called the Louisiana Budget Project, Mintz knew that the local Jewish federation was encouraging his synagogue’s board to back the bill. In a state where…
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Diamond Bakery’s new owners want it to be a force for change—and for great marbled rye
A few months ago, two men drove from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles to satisfy their craving for a good pastrami sandwich. The trip turned out to be life-changing. They bought their sandwiches — and decided to buy a famous Jewish bakery, too. “We came down to buy a pastrami sandwich and bought the most…
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Max Solomon Lewis, 20, killed by stray bullet in Chicago
Max Solomon Lewis, a 20-year-old University of Chicago student, was commuting home from his summer internship last Thursday evening when a stray bullet pierced the window of his train car and hit him in the back of the neck. Lewis, a rising third year student, was rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center and…
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