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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Sephardic Claim Unleashes Fierce Debate About Jewish Identity
Crypto-Jews. Secret Jews. Conversos. Marranos. B’nai Anusim. These are the terms used for Jews, mainly of Spanish descent, who were forced to convert to Catholicism or die during the period of Spain’s Inquisition. While many Sephardic Jews did convert, some continued to practice their Judaism in secret. Now, this 500-year history of hidden Jewish lineage…
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New England Police Pull Out Of Training Program In Israel
BOSTON (JTA) – Two New England police departments withdrew from a security seminar in Israel last week following a public backlash from pro-Palestinian activists. Members of the groups Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace are claiming the withdrawals in two liberal redoubts as a significant victory in their efforts to foil…
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Romemu’s New Yeshiva Adds Meditation To All Talmud All The Time
Wake up. For morning prayers, sit in silent contemplation. Have breakfast. Study Hasidic meditation. Study Kabbalah. Have lunch. Meditate. Study the Talmud. Do yoga. Have dinner. Chant the evening prayers. This is how students at a new summer program from Romemu, the congregation on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, will spend their days. The six-week program…
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Inside The Evangelical Money Flowing Into The West Bank
When the first Christian evangelical volunteers descended on the religious West Bank settlement of Har Bracha about 10 years ago, offering to harvest grapes for the local Jewish farmers free of charge, not everyone welcomed them with open arms. After all, for generations Jews had been taught that when Christians go out of their way…
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Jared Kushner Faces New Scrutiny On Israel After Mueller Lets Flynn Off Easy
Special Counsel Robert Mueller declared in a new court filing that former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn should not serve time in prison because of his “substantial assistance” with investigators — including sharing information on the Trump presidential transition team’s efforts to stop an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations Security Council. Jared Kushner, President…
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Forward 50 2018 Natalie Portman
Divisive Conversation Starter When Natalie Portman, 37, belatedly declined to come to Israel for the Genesis Prize ceremony, she set off a furor. Citing the “mistreatment of those suffering from today’s atrocities,” she said she could not travel to accept the prize. She set herself up as an embodiment of principles that were at odds…
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Is A String Of Attacks Against Brooklyn Jews Really About Anti-Semitism?
Mindel Zaetz’s husband was chased down the street last week by a group of men while he was on his way home from work, just off of Eastern Parkway, the broad thoroughfare that runs through the middle of Crown Heights, in Brooklyn. “He came home really spooked,” said Zaetz, 29, as she was on her…
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Forward 50 2018 Julia Turshen
Cooking Food With A Side Of Activism Julia Turshen doesn’t like to talk about herself that much. She’s much more comfortable giving the microphone and the attention to marginalized people who rarely get a turn to talk. But Turshen has spent the last two years fighting back against power. She fed an army of righteously…
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Forward 50 2018 Meghan Markle
The Royal Addition — Our Forward 50 Gets A Plus 1! Say it with us: Meghan Markle — not a Jew. But oh, oh, in our hearts she is! Markle, the 37-year-old American television actress and activist became Duchess of Sussex in May when she wed the Duke, aka Prince Harry, the Queen’s grandson. In…
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Forward 50 2018 Joel Grey
He Put The Yidl Into “Fiddler” Joel Grey, 86, who won an Oscar for his performance in “Cabaret,” has an enviable reputation as a performer. His directorial accomplishments, on the other hand, while impressive, have been relatively few and far between. So he was somewhat surprised when he received a call from Zalmen Mlotek, musical…
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Forward 50 2018 Elaine May
American Comedy’s Insurgent Genius And Jewish Mother What ties together “The Birdcage,” a mid-90s comedy about the clash between a gay couple and their conservative soon-to-be in-laws, “Labyrinth,” a terrifyingly weird children’s movie about a magical David Bowie, and “The Graduate”? Why, it’s Elaine May, who wrote the former two and made a fleeting cameo…
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