The Shia holy city of Qom teems with mosques, mullahs and madrassas. So, it was a little surprising to hear Qom religious scholar Hossein Soleimani’s response when I asked him to name his favorite writers. “Adin Steinsaltz, for his translation of the Talmud,” he responded promptly. “And also Martin Buber.” Soleimani was one of several…
Wearing black hats or donning small yarmulkes, Orthodox Jews represent a distinct subgroup within the Jewish community — more observant, more conservative and more insular. But the revelation in a report released today by the Pew Research Center is that Orthodox Jews vote, believe, worship, act and raise their children more like white evangelical Protestants…
Three New York Democratic lawmakers called for more substance and fewer personal attacks in the debate on the agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. Reps. Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey and Steve Israel released a statement Tuesday supporting a “serious debate” over the agreement. The statement criticized comarisons between the deal and the Holocaust, as well as…
Taglit-Birthright Israel sends 200 groups of young adult Jews to Israel each year. This summer alone, the program hosted 30,000 participants, an all-time record. Many of those participants say that Birthright is a life-changing experience. But something went very wrong on a trip in early June, and those involved assert that the organizer’s lax regulation…
It has been, in many ways, the most tortuous decision of his career, says Rep. Jerrold Nadler – even more difficult than the decision to oppose the use of force in Iraq – one which kept him up many nights mulling over whether to support or oppose the Iran nuclear deal. Now that he’s made…
About 2 miles west of the Delaware River, eight deaf Jewish girls sit circled on a gym floor, tossing plastic fruits and vegetables at each other. Zissy Moskowitz, one of two interpreters for the group, walks around the circle, taking pictures for a blog the girls’ parents have been following for two weeks now. Moskowitz,…
An Israeli mystery man has made it to the final round of the United States’s most prestigious poker tournament, besting some of the world’s top poker players along the way. Unlike other finalists, some of whom are well-known in tournament poker circles, Ofer Zvi Stern has no obvious online presence and hasn’t taken home a…
Jewish supporters of the Iran nuclear deal have published a full-page New York Times ad backing the agreement signed by 26 current and former prominent communal leaders. The signers include heads of national Jewish organizations, leaders from major federations and former lawmakers, all calling on Congress to approve the deal. “While not perfect, this deal…
It’s a simple gravestone, a small, ground-level marker identical to the four stones beside it. Nothing about the inscription, “Semper Idem” —“ Always the same” — hints at the significance of this 31-year-old man’s untimely death. But here, at the edge of Mount Carmel Cemetery, in New York City, 100 feet from traffic streaming by…
Leo Frank had no children. But the Jewish lynching victim’s descendants include nieces, nephews and their children — who were kept in the dark about their famous relative’s 1915 murder. Cathee Smithline was 18 when her mother, who was Frank’s niece, handed her a 1965 book about the infamous case entitled “A Little Girl Is…
Within a few hours on August 6, New York’s two U.S. Democratic senators took sides on the heated debate over the nuclear deal with Iran. Kirsten Gillibrand, the junior senator, announced she’d vote for the controversial agreement. Chuck Schumer, the veteran who is slated to take over next year as Democratic leader of the Senate,…
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