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Marc Gafni Scraps Appearance at New Age Retreat Amid Outcry
After a firestorm of protest about spiritual teacher Marc Gafni’s upcoming workshop at Esalen, a California retreat center, Gafni and co-teacher Sally Kempton have “voluntarily” chosen to withdraw, said Esalen president Gordon Wheeler. The workshop was scheduled for February 5. Asked if Gafni might return someday to Esalen, Wheeler said “it’s very, very complex, so…
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After Terror Attack, Israel Funding for Arab Towns May Come With Strings Attached
UMM AL FAHM — With some 50,000 residents, this northern town, the largest Muslim municipality in Israel, is a densely packed cacophony of blue, pink and white homes perched on a tangled maze of city streets. With no major industries in the city, most of the men work elsewhere in construction. There are no hospitals…
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Trailblazing Orthodox Rabbi Lila Kagedan Stands on ‘Shoulders of Giants’
(JTA) — When Rabbi Lila Kagedan spends her first Shabbat at the Mount Freedom Jewish Center in Randolph, New Jersey, later this month, she will be making history. A recent graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, Kagedan, 35, is the first person ordained at the Orthodox women’s clergy training institute in New York to adopt the title…
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Do Anti-Semitic Attacks Signal End of ‘Marseille Miracle’?
(JTA) — Only three years ago, the Jews of Marseille were able to congregate without security and in relative safety in their synagogues and community centers. While violence by Muslim extremists rose throughout France, it largely spared the southern port city, where 80,000 Jews and 250,000 Muslims live. When I visited in late 2012, I…
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At 92, Shimon Peres Is Very Much Alive — and Busy as Ever
TEL AVIV — Last month, rumors flooded the Internet that former Israeli President Shimon Peres was dead. True to form, the man who tirelessly trumpets his country’s high-tech sector took to Facebook to clear the air. “I wish to thank the citizens of Israel for the support, concern and interest, and wish to clarify that…
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Muslim Refugees Arrested in Attack on French Jew
BERLIN — A kippah-wearing French businessman was attacked and robbed in an apparent anti-Semitic attack in Germany. Police later arrested the alleged attackers, refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. The early Saturday morning attack took place at a ferry and train station on the island of Puttgarden. The alleged assailants were released with the requirement that…
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The Radical New Face of the Jewish Settler Movement
When Eliezer Shekhtman moved to Israel from Chicago, he chose to live in Tapuach, a hardcore settlement deep inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He had family friends there; his father had been an associate of Meir Kahane, the virulently anti-Arab rabbi. But after a year, Shekhtman wanted more privacy and moved to a trailer on…
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The Secret Jewish Past of Harlem
Walk along Lenox Avenue in the heart of Harlem on a Sunday morning, pass the Mt. Olivet Church and you’ll hear the gospel choir singing passionately, worshippers and gospel-lovers streaming into the church in their Sunday best. But look up, toward the top of the towering Grecian columns, and you’ll find Stars of David. Built…
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‘Mein Kampf’ No Longer Banned in Germany — Now What?
Nazi salutes, swastikas and other Third Reich symbols have long been outlawed in Germany. But as of midnight on New Year’s Eve, “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s infamous autobiographical tome, was off the list of suppressed Nazi icons. As a result, “Mein Kampf” will again hit bookstores in Germany, 70 years after its author’s death at the…
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7 Reconstructionist Rabbis Quit as Synagogues Debate Intermarried Rabbis
Seven rabbis have quit the Reconstructionist movement and several synagogues are discussing possible responses since the stream announced a controversial new controversial policy allowing rabbis to marry outside the Jewish faith. Rabbi Reba Carmel, who works at a nondenominational synagogue in Warrington, Pennsylvania, has withdrawn from the movement, saying the new policy allowing intermarried rabbis…
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In Recorded Conversation, Gafni Considers Strategy Against Critics
In a conversation with his lawyer and public relations advisor, Marc Gafni, the controversial spiritual leader, speculated about suing the Forward as a “test case” and said that the public campaign denouncing him was driven by Jews who are upset about his new think tank’s success. The conversation occurred December 30 after the end of…
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