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Meet the 4 Jewish Winners of MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grants
The John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation picks an annual class of between 20 and 30 fellows from all types of vocations and professions who will receive a sizable (this year $625,000) and unrestricted grant to help further their work over five years. Known generally as the “genius” grants, nominations and discussions are confidential…
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When Walking Dogs Is a Labor of Love — and Small Act of Rebellion
Even for New York City, they make an odd pair walking down the sidewalk: a Hasidic man with a dog. Gedalya Gottenger shared a happy camaraderie his canine companion, petting him as they lounged for a brief moment in the shade and laughing at the smell as he bent down with a small plastic bag….
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FEGS Execs Got Fat Payouts as Bankruptcy Loomed Amid Rampant Mismanagement
One month before one of the largest Jewish charities in the country admitted to donors that it had lost $20 million, the agency’s executive vice president got a $92,000 bonus. The signs of the impending disaster that would soon send FEGS Health & Human Services spiraling into bankruptcy, and leave tens of thousands of its…
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When Pope Francis Brought — and Broke Down — Barriers for Philadelphia’s Jews
Sitting in synagogue on Yom Kippur, three days before Pope Francis’s arrival in Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but think about the scene unfolding outside my house. Already, metal crowd-control fences were lining my property right across the street from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, where the pope would be sleeping. My little suburban block was in…
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My Unforgettable Day With the Holy Father (Or How I Killed 7 Hours Waiting To See Pope Francis)
Media check-in time to see Pope Francis play Madison Square Garden was 11 a.m. on September 25, seven and a half hours before His Holiness was scheduled to process beneath the Jumbotron. Seven and a half hours is, in my opinion, too long to wait for anyone, even the Vicar of Jesus Christ, but the…
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Pope Francis Makes Surprise Stop To Bless Sculpture Symbolizing Catholic Unity With Jews
Nearly 50 years after the Vatican officially proclaimed Jews free of guilt in the killing of Jesus, Pope Francis made a surprise change to his schedule on the final day of his U.S. tour to convey his own message of respect for the Jewish people. In an unannounced event, the pontiff stopped Sunday to bless…
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Newcomers Transform Dying Upper Manhattan Synagogues Into Hot Spots
A version of this article first appeared in Yiddish in the Forverts For years, the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol of Washington Heights, a large 99-year old Orthodox synagogue on 175th Street and Wadsworth Avenue, had barely been able to attract a minyan, the quorum of ten men required for worship. The 6 or 7 gray-haired veterans…
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Travel Agents Turn to Iran — and Find Plenty of Jewish Interest
Ask the State Department whether it is any safer now for Americans to travel to Iran, and the answer you’ll get will be unequivocally negative. The nuclear deal reached with Tehran, as a State Department makes clear, “does not alter the United States’ assessment of the risks of travel to Iran for U.S. citizens.” But…
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Searching for a Photo of Childhood Friend Lost in the Shoah
Who has a picture of Ruth Nelly Abraham? That intriguing headline, a plea from Holocaust survivor Inge Auerbacher, appeared in the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel on August 3. Auerbacher, 80, was looking for a picture of her childhood friend, Ruth Nelly Abraham, who was murdered at Auschwitz. Auerbacher hoped a picture would breathe new life…
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Will John Boehner Now Spill the Beans on Bibi Speech Drama?
(JTA) — John Boehner, the Republican from Ohio who is the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is quitting politics. Now that he’s going, maybe Boehner may feel free to elaborate on his role in the secret that launched the ongoing U.S.-Israel crisis — and perhaps permanently changed the relationship between the two countries….
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New Controversial Circumcision Rite Rules: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
New York City has not only stopped requiring mohels to obtain written consent before performing a controversial circumcision rite — the city has also stopped alerting doctors and the public when it suspects that a mohel has infected a baby with herpes following the ritual, known as metzitzah b’peh or MBP. Between January 2013 and…
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Film & TV The new ‘Superman’ is being called anti-Israel, but does that make it pro-Palestine?
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Music ‘No matter what, I will always be a Jew.’ Billy Joel opens up about his family’s Holocaust history
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Music Remembering Ozzy Osbourne’s Jewish vow renewal
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Culture She was my Hebrew school bully — and I finally learned what happened to her
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish אַב קאַהאַנס נאָוועלע „יעקל“ ווערט מגולגל אין אַן אָפּערעAb Cahan’s novella “Yekl” transformed into an opera
דער קאָמפּאָזיטאָר דן שאָר האָט זיך אינספּירירט פֿונעם פֿילם „העסטער סטריט“, וואָס איז אויך באַזירט אויף דער נאָוועלע
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Yiddish פֿרוידס פּסיאָנאָלאָטישע טעאָריעס און דער ייִדישער געדאַנקען־גאַנגFreud’s psychoanalytic theory and Jewish thought
פֿרױד האָט אַנטדעקט אינערלעכע סודות פֿונעם איך, בעת מאַקס װײַנרײַך האָט געפֿאָרשט די פּסיכאָלאָגיע פֿונעם ייִדישן פֿאָלק.
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Fast Forward Jewish quarterback Jake Retzlaff will play at Tulane after leaving BYU following suspension
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Fast Forward The largest Reconstructionist synagogue is set to cut ties with the movement over Israel tensions
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