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Is ‘Chained’ Wife Tamar Epstein’s Remarriage Kosher — Even Without Orthodox Divorce?
Tamar Epstein, the prominent “chained woman” whose right to remarry under traditional Jewish law was long stymied, may have finally found two Orthodox rabbis willing to help her wed again. But her fate in the broader Jewish community — and the fate of any children she may have — is anything but ensured. Epstein, who…
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Will Ezra Schwartz Murder Cause Schools To Rethink Security in Israel?
As violence rises in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, parents of American Jewish students studying there say that they are relying on the security protocols of the programs to which they have entrusted their children. It is not yet clear, however, whether such protocols were followed by Yeshivat Ashreinu, the school the American teenager…
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Why Were 2 Homeless Men Found Dead at Brooklyn Jewish Elementary School?
Just after midnight at an Orthodox Jewish elementary school in Brooklyn, Elliott Gordon found a man turning blue on the floor of the chapel. Gordon had been sitting in a filthy dormitory room upstairs when he heard a voice in the hallway say that a man named Moshe had collapsed. It was Gordon’s first night…
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Meet Peter Gold, the Hero Medical Student We Can All Be Thankful For
It’s perhaps no surprise that Peter Gold rushed to a woman’s aid when he spotted an armed attack unfolding on a darkened New Orleans street last week. After all, helping people is in the Tulane University medical student’s blood: His dad, uncle, and grandfather are all doctors. “I’m sure he would do the same thing…
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Suburban Philadelphia High School Gets $8M Gift
The Kohelet Yeshiva High School in Merion Station, Pennsylvania, has received an $8.6 million gift. The gift announced last week from the Kohelet Foundation includes $7.5 million in unrestricted funds to be used for operational expenses at the school over the next five years, as well as $1.1 million to fund the high school’s new…
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Jews Unite To Defend Policy on Syrian Refugees — With a Few Exceptions
On the face of it, Morton Klein would seem to embody everything that has driven most Jewish communal organizations to oppose the current call to stop admitting refugees from Syria into America. Klein, who leads the right-wing Zionist Organization of America, was born in a displaced persons’ camp in Germany after World War II. He…
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Transgender Activist May Peleg Wins Fight for Cremation — After Her Own Suicide
In March 2014, May Peleg paid for her own cremation at Aley Shalechet, the only funeral home in Israel that offers this service, considered taboo in Jewish tradition. Peleg should have been cremated soon after she committed suicide. The prominent 31-year-old transgender activist had made her wishes clear in her will, her lawyer said, where…
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West Bank Wineries to Europe: ‘Label This!’
Sitting in the warehouse of his winery in the Israeli- occupied West Bank, Amichai Lourie picked up a bottle of 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon and pointed to a label where the name of his settlement, “Shiloh,” was scrawled in white ink. The European Union has said that it will label goods from exclusively Jewish West Bank…
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Ezra Schwartz Mourned at Poignant Funeral in Hometown of Sharon
(JTA) — For some 2 1/2 hours, Ezra Schwartz was remembered for his unbridled joy and passion for life, his deep and ever-widening circle of friends, and his athletic prowess as a champion baseball player and adventure-seeking skier. Hundreds of mourners filled a Boston-area synagogue sanctuary on Sunday and dozens more stood outside to hear about…
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How Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity Changed Our Universe
Albert Einstein once said that there are only two things that might be infinite: the universe and human stupidity. And, he confessed, he wasn’t sure about the universe. When we hear that, we chuckle. Or at least we smile. We do not take offense. The reason is that the name “Einstein” conjures an image of…
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What Was Albert Einstein’s True Relationship to Judaism — and Zionism?
Is any name more synonymous with Jewish genius than Albert Einstein? By speaking out against anti-Semitism and lending his brand to institutions like the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Einstein became a standard-bearer for the Diaspora. As a prominent booster of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a star fundraiser for the Zionist cause, he…
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