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Eric Fingerhut Says ‘Sorry’ to J Street — But Rift Remains
Hoping to “wipe the slate clean,” Hillel International’s president and CEO Eric Fingerhut stepped into the lion’s den Monday for a face-to-face meeting with campus leaders of the dovish lobby J Street. Although he sounded all the right notes, Fingerhut offered little in the way of substance to mend the rift between Hillel, the national…
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How the Forverts Reported Leo Frank’s Lynching
The following is a translation by Chana Pollack of the Yiddish Forverts coverage of the lynching of Leo Frank on August 17, 1915 Atlanta, August 17, 1915 — A telephone dispatch was received today at 55 minutes past 8 in the morning reporting that Leo Frank was lynched in Marietta (Marietta is the town where…
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10 Years After Katrina, Struggles and Triumphs for New Orleans Jews
(JTA) — One rainy afternoon earlier this summer, Rabbi Gabe Greenberg stood on the backyard patio of the new Beth Israel synagogue telling the story of the deluge that destroyed the Orthodox congregation’s Lakeview neighborhood building. Most of the now 111-year-old synagogue’s possessions were ruined by the 10 feet of water that filled the premises…
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Could Something Other Than Mohels Be Giving Herpes in Circumcisions?
A former county health official claims he has identified a source for herpes infections in ultra-Orthodox baby boys — and it’s not metzitzah b’peh, the controversial ritual in which a mohel uses his lips to suction blood from the circumcision wound. New York City health officials blame metzitzah b’peh, or MBP, for infecting 17 Jewish…
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When Leo Frank Was Lynched a Century Ago
“Leo M. Frank Kidnapped and Lynched.” That’s how readers of the Yiddish Forverts learned on August 17, 1915, of the shocking murder of Leo Frank. Frank’s arrest and trial two years previously in Atlanta on charges of rape and murder gripped America’s Jewish community. It gripped the Forverts too. This newspaper’s founding editor, Abraham Cahan,…
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In an Education Reform Battlefield, Hebrew Charters Are at the Forefront
In a country where residential ZIP codes have long dictated public school zoning, the education reform movement in recent years has also brought to the forefront a notion of school choice in which families can decide where to send their children to school on public dollars, regardless of where they live. Charter schools, which are…
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Meet The Jewish Politician Calling For Private School Security Legislation
Just in time for back-to-school this fall, a New York politician is trying to pass a bill that would require Mayor Bill de Blasio to fund the same security in private schools that public schools have access to already. City Councilman David Greenfield sponsored the bill, known as Intro 65, to address what he saw…
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English Teachers Go to Israel To Help Low-Income Kids, Learn a Lesson or Two
“Fell in love” is how a handful of teachers, largely from the United States and the United Kingdom, describe their first-time experience in Israel. That love is what has brought them back to the Holy Land summer after summer — not for vacation, but to educate hundreds of Israeli children, regardless of religion or socioeconomics….
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Is Hebrew a Language To Bind Us, or To Bore Us?
It’s common for young Jews to study Hebrew until the age of 13 — and then never interact with the language again. Hebrew school students learn the alphabet, but often have little understanding of what the prayers mean. Having a conversation in modern Hebrew is a long shot. This phenomenon raises questions about the priorities…
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How Poetry, Prison and a Holocaust Book Are Changing Ex-Offenders’ Lives
“Listen closely. Can you hear the heels of the ruby red shoes clicking?” Dennis Francis, a formerly incarcerated inmate turned poet, asked a packed, silent classroom in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens. “There’s no place like homeless shelters, there’s no place like homeless shelters.” It was a Wednesday afternoon at the The Fortune…
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An Island Haven for Turkey’s Jews
I’m pretty sure I’ve missed a turn on the winding, bougainvillea-filled backstreets of Buyukada, an idyllic island about an hour’s ferry ride from Istanbul. A horse-drawn carriage filled with vacationers — some wearing headscarves — whips by. Suddenly, an older man in an immaculately pressed suit and silk tie appears in front of me. Next,…
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