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Jewish History’s Lesson for Handling Ebola
With the arrival of the Ebola virus on American shores, public conversation has shifted from fears of contagion to a focus on the ethics of quarantine and the rights of the contained. Quarantine is an ancient form of medical precaution, predating immunization by centuries. Its implementation, however, has never been strictly clinical. The question of…
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Right-Wing Jewish Activist Yehuda Glick Shot After Temple Mount Conference
A prominent right-wing Israeli activist was shot three times and seriously wounded in a drive-by attack outside a controversial Jerusalem conference about the future of the Temple Mount, Haaretz reported. A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire on Yehuda Glick outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem late Wednesday night. It was not immediately…
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Jews Spent Centuries in Antakya, Turkey. Now, There’s Only 17 Left.
Saul Cenudioglu remembers when his synagogue was full and when Muslims and Christians of this diverse Turkish city joined with Jews to celebrate marriages and births. “I’m afraid in 15 or 20 years, people in Antakya might be saying, ‘Did you know there used to be Jews in this city?’” Cenudioglu said. Antakya sits just…
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Dear Mom, I Am an Atheist for Good
The Seesaw is a new kind of advice column in which a broad range of columnists will address the real life issues faced by interfaith couples and families. Read the discussion and vote for what you think is the best response to this particular quandary. You can email your own questions, which will remain anonymous,…
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Political Correctness Doesn’t Make Speech More Meaningful
Not too long ago I found myself in an argument — civilly conducted, I must say — with a friend of one of my daughters, a young man of emphatically liberal views who teaches sociology at a college in Israel. In the name of gender equality, he said, he was careful to address his classes…
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The Rise and Fall of Calcutta Jews
“Jews in India?” people exclaim when the concept is mentioned. With fewer than 30 members of the community left there, it’s sometimes hard to recall that a place like Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, was once the site of a thriving Jewish community. Jael Silliman, a scholar and, at age 59, the youngest of this…
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Women of Wall Slip Torah Scroll Into Western Wall Bat Mitzvah
(Haaretz) — Defying regulations by Western Wall rabbinic authorities, members of Women of the Wall smuggled a tiny Torah scroll into the women’s section of the Kotel Friday morning, in what the feminist prayer group said was the first reading from the Torah by women at the holy site in 25 years. The tiny scroll,…
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How a Stunned Synagogue Faces Up to Sins of Rabbi Barry Freundel
There is no playbook guiding Modern Orthodox congregations on what to do when their rabbi is accused of abusing congregants and of violating their privacy at the most holy and intimate of moments. But when the venerable Washington congregation Kesher Israel got the news on October 14 that its spiritual leader of more than 26…
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Anti-Abuse Activist Joey Diangello Dies of Overdose, But His Legacy Lives On
As a teenager, Joey Diangello, a self-described survivor of child sex abuse, left the insular Satmar Hasidic community of Williamsburg, in Brooklyn, where he’d grown up and plunged into the world of heavy metal music. There, Diangello, who wore mascara and heavy metal T-shirts and sported long, black hair, found some measure of comfort in…
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Rabbis Barry Freundel and Leib Tropper Ensnared in Scandals Tied to Conversions
A prominent Orthodox rabbi is disgraced, accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior towards converts. That may sound like the scandal now toppling Barry Freundel, the prominent Washington, D.C. rabbi who pled not guilty on October 15 to allegations that he secretly videotaped women showering in the antechamber of his synagogue’s mikveh, or ritual bath….
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Stav Shaffir, Ex-Protest Leader, Keeps Eye on the Shekels
Having coffee with Stav Shaffir is little different from meeting up with other 20-somethings in Tel Aviv. She rushes into the cafe a few minutes late, glances repeatedly at her phone and complains about high rents and an out-of-touch government. It’s hard, she says, being the youngest woman in a workplace full of older men….
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