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Retiring N.Y. Cemetery Chief Is Savvy Regulator in Grave Business
Richard Fishman’s office gets dozens of frantic phone calls every day, most of them from Jews. As the chief regulator of New York State’s not-for-profit cemeteries, Jewish graves aren’t Fishman’s only problem. But they up take a lot of his time. When you call the cemetery about the grave your uncle said was reserved for…
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Iceland’s Handful of Jews Keep Faith Alive
Iceland has no synagogue, no rabbis, no Jewish community center or organized structure. In fact, Judaism is not even one of Iceland’s state-recognized religions. Still, Iceland has about 100 Jews who call this North Atlantic island home. And last year, roughly 50 of them gathered in a hall downtown on Erev Rosh Hashanah for services…
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Israeli Attitudes Toward Arabs Soften — But the Feeling’s Not Mutual
Despite widespread perceptions, Israeli Jews aren’t becoming more antagonistic toward Israeli Arabs. So concludes a new survey that also shows how Israeli Arab attitudes toward Jews have turned harsher. The past four years have seen a wave of legislation that many Arabs and civil rights advocates view as attacks on the civil rights of Israel’s…
The Latest
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What’s for Dinner at the Peace Negotiations?; The Devil of Williamsburg
In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward Washington correspondent Nathan Guttman, to discuss the ongoing Israel-Palestine peace negotiations and what the negotiators are eating for dinner. Then, former Forward staffer Allison Yarrow calls in to discuss her new ebook on the trial of Satmar sexual abuser, Nechemya Weberman and…
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Real Housewives of the West Bank
Mommy blogs are nothing new. The blogosphere is full of sites written by self-proclaimed happy mommies, designer mommies, vodka-drinking mommies, redneck mommies, “scary,” sarcastic mommies and even “stark raving mad” mommies. Now there’s a new kind of mommy blogger joining their ranks: the Israeli settler mommy. Mitnachalot Bareshet (Set on the Net), a new blog…
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Holocaust Museum Turns 20 as Sara Bloomfield Ends Controversies
Two images attest to Sara Bloomfield’s success as director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — one clearly visible, the other hidden from sight. The obvious marker of Bloomfield’s success can be found daily alongside the museum’s starkly designed building, where, even 20 years after its opening, lengthy lines of visitors snake for blocks….
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First Felony Charges in E. Ramapo School Scandal
A real estate appraiser has been charged with a felony in the first criminal action to stem from the ongoing conflict over an Orthodox-dominated school board in upstate New York. Avi Vardi is charged with filing a false report in connection with his 2010 appraisal of an elementary school owned by the East Ramapo School…
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Subway Icon Dr. Jonathan Zizmor Calls Accused Y.U. Abuse Rabbi ‘Best Teacher’
To millions of New Yorkers, Jonathan Zizmor is the don of dermatology. But to some victims of sex abuse, Zizmor is the donor who established a scholarship in their alleged molester’s name. Zizmor, who is renowned across New York City’s five boroughs for his campy subway advertisements promoting cosmetic procedures, gave $250,000 to Yeshiva University…
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Pope Francis: Gays Should Not Be Marginalized or Judged
Pope Francis, in some of the most compassionate words from any pontiff on gays, said they should not be judged or marginalised and should be integrated into society, but he reaffirmed Church teaching that homosexual acts are a sin. In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long…
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Mom-and-Pop Hasidic Businesses Get Big Boost From Small Financing
Lazer Chaim Zinger washes talleisim. His small storefront on Lee Avenue, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, looks like any dry cleaner, with a row of tagged plastic-sheathed garments hanging behind the counter. In this Hasidic Jewish neighborhood, however, you have to take your long black coat somewhere else. For $100, Zinger will hand-wash your…
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The Jewish Face of the Immigration Reform Struggle
For 25 years, Roy Naim, an undocumented immigrant, led a secretive life. Having no identification papers, he could not drive, rent an apartment or be legally employed. Worst of all, he constantly feared being deported from his home and family. All he did was try to lie low, and somehow get by. Naim is still…
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