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$20M Charity Embezzlement Case Shows Power of Rabbinic Courts
In late December 2013, a prominent Brooklyn rabbi made an eye-popping ruling in his rabbinic court: The former chief financial officer of an Orthodox charity called Aish Hatorah New York owed the charity $20 million that he had allegedly stolen. That startling sum amounted to roughly three times the charity’s annual budget, or more than…
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Jury Decides Against JONAH in Landmark ‘Gay Conversion’ Therapy Case
A jury decided against a Jewish group that promotes so-called ‘gay conversion therapy’ in a landmark fraud case that could have a wide-ranging impact on the controversial anti-gay practice. In a first-of-its-kind decision, the jury awarded $72,000 to several mostly Jewish victims who said Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing and co-founder Arthur Goldberg made…
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That Time Jellyfish Swarmed an Israeli Power Plant
A swarm of giant jellyfish arrived at the Rutenberg power plant in Ashkelon Wednesday, which however was prepared with filters to keep the slimy sea creatures out of its cooling systems. The plant constantly cleared the filters from the animals, to keep the cooling systems and plant running. “Our coal-fired power stations are located by…
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Jewish Groups Lead Push To Crack Open Doors to Syria Refugees
Of the four million Syrians who have fled their war-torn country in recent years, at least 135,000 of them require immediate resettlement. But America has absorbed fewer than 1,000. For Jewish activists pushing the government to shift gears, that feeble number and the accompanying bottleneck in resettlement of Syrian refugees are troubling reminders of their…
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Landmark JONAH ‘Gay Conversion’ Therapy Case Goes to Jury
Jurors began deliberations Wednesday afternoon on whether gay conversion therapy constitutes fraud. The verdict comes after the close of a three-week trial that has drawn national attention to so-called “ex-gay” or “gay conversion” therapy, which aims to turn gay people straight using some highly controversial techniques. Although gay-to-straight conversion therapy was most prevalent in evangelical…
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U.N. Judge Warns Israel It Crossed Line by Bombing Gaza Civilians
Mary McGowan Davis, the American judge who led the independent United Nations probe into the events of last summer’s war in Gaza, said the main message committee members wanted to transmit is that Israel must reexamine its policy of using its military might against civilians, because it led to unprecedented destruction in Gaza and to…
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Could Russ Feingold Lead Democrats Back to Senate Win?
Democrats, who are looking to take back control of the Senate in 2016, have focused on a state that might seem implausible at first glance as a litmus test for their goal: Wisconsin. But the state that elected archconservative Scott Walker as governor in 2010, re-elected him in 2014 and decisively rejected a grassroots effort…
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America’s Oldest Synagogue Wrestles With Court Battle and Its Own Decline
Rabbi Marc Mandel’s voice filled Touro Synagogue one recent Saturday morning, drifting past the wooden columns that line the basilica and rising toward the women’s gallery, just as the voices of baalei tefillah, or prayer leaders, did 250 years ago. Tourists stream through this, the oldest synagogue in America, five days a week. But it…
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Charleston Jews Join Vigil For Church Shooting Victims
The brutal shooting of on Wednesday night has stunned Charleston’s Jewish community. “We’re always on alert when there’s a hate act,” said Judi Corsaro, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Charleston, South Carolina, adding that there was very little reason for the Jewish community to suspect a rise in anti-Semitism. Last night, she said, was…
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Is Chuck Schumer Waffling on Iran Nuclear Deal?
If you thought you knew where Chuck Schumer, the powerful U.S. senator from New York, stood on the impeding nuclear deal with Iran, think again. “The decision about Iran is one of the most serious I’ve had to make,” he told activists from the Orthodox Union who gathered on Capitol Hill on June 3 for…
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Israel’s Druze Call for Rescue of Embattled Syrian Brethren
Days after Jihadi insurgents in Syria slaughtered at least 20 Druze citizens not far from Israel’s border in mid-June, residents of Hurfeish, a village in Northern Israel, streamed to their town square on foot, horseback and bicycle, waving the bright rainbow flag of their religious sect, pledging to save their brethren. Fearing a looming genocide,…
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