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Does Haunting Photo Show Singin’ Jewish Twins?
I haven’t taken a survey on this, but I feel pretty confident that the secret shame of photo archivists is that drawer full of unidentified images — the “orphans,” in archive speak. Photos that stubbornly refuse to reveal any hint of who might be in them, where they may have been taken and, most important,…
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The King of the Continental Bathhouse
“Continental,” which premiered at this year’s South by Southwest Festival, in Austin, Texas, bills itself as “a documentary about the infamous NYC bathhouse” where a brash unknown named Bette Midler, accompanied by a Jewish pianist named Barry Manilow, once entertained towel-clad gay men. But it’s really the story of an unlikely sexual revolutionary named Steve…
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All German Jews Forced To Change Names to Israel and Sarah
1913 •100 years ago King of the Horse Poisoners Sings Joseph Tablinsky is known on Manhattan’s Lower East Side as the “king of the horse poisoners.” Not long ago, Tablinsky was in court, about to get sent up to Sing Sing on a 10-year stint. He made a deal with the judge to reveal everything…
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Judge’s Ruling Is Big Victory to Y.U. in $380M Sex Abuse Suit, Experts Say
A federal judge’s recent decision barring discovery to 31 adults who say they were sexually abused as students at Yeshiva University High School for Boys years ago bodes poorly for the plaintiffs’ case, say two legal experts who have been following the case. The August 6 decision by United States District Judge John G. Koeltl…
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$100K Jewelry Thief Raids Luxury Park Ave. Building — Home to Many Jews
A jewelry thief has reportedly struck four times this summer in a luxury Park Ave. building that is home to many prominent Jews, making off with more than $100,000 in baubles. The New York Post reported that the thief or thieves has stolen rings, watches and other jewelry from apartments at tony 740 Park Ave.,…
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Willie Rapfogel’s Downfall in Scandal Means Murky Future for Jewish Programs
Until just a few days ago, William Rapfogel was considered New York Jewry’s poverty czar, and his deep connections to the city’s political class were viewed as one of the prime assets of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, which he long headed. Rapfogel’s abrupt firing amid the disclosure of a criminal investigation into his…
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Lone Jewish Voice Favors Public Christian Prayer in Key Supreme Court Case
For the first time since 1983, the United States Supreme Court is taking on a case that could overturn its long-held approach to deciding when government-endorsed prayer in the public square violates the Constitution. The case, which involves an upstate New York town whose legislative meetings opened with prayer invocations that were given almost exclusively…
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Wearing a Black Ribbon Helped One Jewish Widow Mend Her Soul
A week after her mother died, my friend called with an unusual request. “Can I borrow the black ribbon you used when Rod died?” Though she had been given one at the funeral, she had misplaced it amid the confusion of the shiva. “I want to keep wearing it,” she explained. “If I remember correctly,…
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For Transgender Converts, Changing Gender and Finding Faith Come Together
Growing up female and Methodist in the Midwest, Kadin Henningsen was inexplicably drawn to Judaism, empathizing with characters in Holocaust documentaries on TV. Then in junior high, Henningsen had a revelation while reading Chaim Potok’s “The Chosen”: “I remember thinking I was supposed to grow up to be a Jewish man.” Less than two decades…
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Iconic Opera Singer Regina Resnik Dies at 90
The American Jewish mezzo-soprano Regina Resnik, who died on August 8 at age 90, was admired for her high-flying dramatic delivery and stage presence in roles from Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s “Falstaff” conducted by Leonard Bernstein to the Countess in Tchaikovsky’s “Pique Dame” conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich. In 1987, in the Kander and Ebb musical…
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Angela Buchdahl, First Asian-American Rabbi, Vies for Role at Central Synagogue
When Cantor Angela Buchdahl walks among the pews, greeting congregants before Friday night services at Manhattan’s venerable Central Synagogue, she encounters a mélange of Jewish faces, including blacks, Asians and Hispanics. It’s a diversity that reflects the emergence of an American Jewry of unprecedented ethnic breadth, and a diversity that Buchdahl — born to an…
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