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A new study has found that heartbeats actually harmonize during this religious ritual
Two anthropologists have discovered that the heartbeats of those who practice Sufism, a mystical dimension of the Islamic faith, beat in tandem during a communal ritual in which all of the congregants join in deep meditation or an ecstatic trance. Rabbis and cantors told the Forward they were not surprised. “Anyone who has been at…
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After King Soopers massacre, Boulder’s Jews mourn friends and neighbors
Just before authorities released the names of the victims of the Boulder, Colorado shooting, Liz Hanson woke up and got dressed, slipping into a pair of tie-dyed pants she bought at the store of her friend Lonna Bartkowiak. Moments later she learned that Bartkowiak, 49, had been shot and killed. “I found out she was…
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Taiwan’s small Jewish community is gearing up for a big Passover party — no masks required
(JTA) — British Jewish artist Leon Fenster loved his adopted city so much that he designed a Passover Haggadah with it as the theme. So when he left the Chinese capital for Taiwan in early 2020 at the outset of the pandemic, he made a vow: Next year in Beijing, again. A year later, Fenster…
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Andres Abt, 47, First Jewish Mayor Of A District In Uruguay’s Capital Montevideo
(JTA) — The first Jewish mayor of a district in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo died after two weeks battling COVID-19. Andres Abt died on March 12 at the age of 47. Two days later, his funeral procession to the Jewish cemetery in Montevideo stopped by the Torre Ejecutiva, the headquarters of the federal government,…
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Analysis: Israel’s election results look like the coronavirus never happened
The television exit polls show that the main event of the past year – the coronavirus – didn’t influence Israeli voters at all. What hasn’t happened to us since the last election? Lockdowns, quarantines, more than 6,000 deaths, face masks, cellphone tracking by the Shin Bet security service, huge deficits, soaring unemployment, Saturday night demonstrations…
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Steven M. Cohen, shunned by academy after harassment allegations, makes stealthy comeback — and provokes uproar
Emily Sigalow, an executive at UJA-Federation of New York, was shocked at the email she received on Jan. 25 inviting her to participate in an “off-the-record” conversation about the “current state” of American Jewish life. The invitation came from an esteemed professor at Brandeis, where Sigalow had received her PhD, and one of the four…
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What makes this Passover different from all others? Brandeis University is celebrating.
BOSTON (JTA) – To prepare for Passover, Sam Greene is deep-cleaning his dorm room in keeping with the standards of his Orthodox Jewish family. Lena Ben-Gideon is compiling readings about immigration to supplement her haggadah. And Juliana Sherer is casting her friends in a dramatic performance of “Had Gadya,” the song that plays a prominent…
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Jewish history, and RBG, shaped Rachel Wainer Apter’s path to New Jersey’s top court
When Rachel Wainer Apter told her three children that she had just been nominated as a justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, they were overwhelmed with excitement. “They laughed, they cried, and they screamed – all at the same time,” Apter, an Orthodox Jew and resident of Englewood, NJ, told the Forward in an…
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The fight to save endangered Jewish languages, from Ladino to Judeo-Malayalam
What are the Jewish languages? Some are well known — Hebrew is the language of the Torah and of Israel, and Yiddish was the language of the shtetls and the great centers of European Jewish culture. Ladino was the language of the Jews of Spain and the Ottoman diaspora. But what about Judeo-Malayalam, spoken by…
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104-year-old Iranian Jew was gathering tools for his garden when attacked by killer
Youssef Mahboubian was in his home garage gathering tools for his backyard garden when his murderer struck. The 104 year-old Iranian Jewish immigrant was in strong physical shape and regulalrly tended to his garden at his large Encino, California home, his nephew Sam Shakib told the Forward. Mahboubian’s home is located on a quiet cul-de-sac…
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Israel’s first Black Cabinet member knows the aliyah struggle. It’s why she kept immigration open during COVID.
(JTA) — To immigrate to Israel from Ethiopia, Pnina Tamano-Shata’s family had to trek on foot through the desert to Sudan in the middle of a famine. Later, the truck bringing her mother and two of her sisters to the airfield broke down. It wasn’t until the plane doors closed that Tamano-Shata realized that they…
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