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First Black Miss Israel Titi Aynaw Reflects Growing Diversity of Jewish State
When Yityish Aynaw immigrated from Ethiopia to Israel at age 12, she was thrust into an Israeli classroom. An orphan lacking Hebrew skills, Aynaw says she relied on other kids and her own sheer ambition to get through. Ten years later Aynaw, 22, is the first Ethiopian-Israeli to be crowned Miss Israel – a title…
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‘Jews of Egypt’ Rides Bumpy Road to Premiere
A controversial documentary on Egypt’s expulsion of its long-resident Jewish population opened despite an initial effort by the Egyptian government to block its release. “Jews of Egypt” opened on March 27 at three movie theaters in Cairo and Alexandria after official permission was first granted, then withdrawn and then granted again. When the initial scheduled…
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Jayson Littman, ‘Mayor’ of Gay Jewish Party Scene, Was Once Yeshiva Boy
“You’re now a gay American Jew? Are you a Jewish American gay? Are you an American gay Jew?” Jayson Littman pondered his multiple identities. Is it possible to be all three simultaneously? For Littman, it’s a rhetorical question. The 35-year-old financial consultant hosts parties in New York City, where the scene is decidedly gay and…
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Supreme Court Justices Hint They May Kill Anti-Gay Marriage Law
Supreme Court justices on Wednesday indicated interest in striking down a law that denies federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a potential swing vote, warned of the “risks” that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) infringes upon the traditional role of the states in defining marriage. The 1996 U.S. law denies…
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David Miliband, British Jewish Leader, Quits Politics, Clearing Path for Brother
Former British foreign secretary David Miliband, once tipped as a potential prime minister, said on Wednesday he was leaving politics to boost his brother’s chances of leading the opposition Labour party to victory in an election in 2015. His departure ends speculation he might replace brother Ed Miliband as Labour leader between now and 2015…
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What Lay Behind Maimonides’ Door in Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue
As the anonymous protagonist of Frank Stockton?s story ?The Lady or the Tiger?? grew increasingly aware, what lies beyond a portal can make a huge difference. A long tradition of adorning doors with a variety of iconographies reflects artists? understanding of what is at stake in an opaque entrance that obscures and protects what lies…
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The Next 100 Years According to Marcel Proust
Everyone loves a centenary. One hundred years might not be more important than 99 or 101, but it?s an occasion to revisit a part of the past we don?t think about every day. Memory doesn?t require a reason ? just an opportunity. With the revolutions, wars and innovations of the 20th century now reaching their…
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Marc Spiegel Plays Emanuel Ringelblum for U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum
More than 2,000 survivors attended the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s daylong program of Holocaust-related films and workshops at the New York Hilton on March 3. I was moved by actor Marc Spiegel’s one-man dramatization of the secret operation named Oneg Shabbat (Hebrew for Joy of Sabbath), a project undertaken by the historian Emanuel Ringelblum in…
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Leader of Friends of IDF Scores $546K Package of Salary and Benefits
Last week, at the glamorous Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces held its annual gala dinner. The FIDF’s national director, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak (Jerry) Gershon smiled beside wounded soldiers flown in from Israel to encourage guests to open their wallets. Gershon should be pleased: according to various reports, about…
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Vexing Question of Celery vs. Parsley on the Seder Plate
The table is set; your Seder plate is ready, and on it is everything you need: the matzos, the ?shank bone,? the hardboiled egg, the ?bitter herb? of a horseradish root, the ?aroset or sweet condiment, and the karpas or celery. Or is it parsley? Of course, Jews wouldn?t be Jews if they agreed about…
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How a Jewish Cowboy Foiled a Hungry Grizzly Bear and Saved Passover
When I was very young, my father told me bedtime stories that, looking back, may have helped me overcome my feeling that I couldn?t be both Jewish and a Westerner. Growing up in Utah, where Mormons tend to treat Jews as living Bible characters instead of real friends and neighbors, I often doubted the authenticity…
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